Culture Club - Zayn's Never Been In Love, The Olympics' Cheating Scandal & What's The Tofu Theory？

00:00:00.000 The Olympics cheating scandal, Zayn Malik's call-her-daddy revelation, and what is a tofu

00:00:10.660 theory? I'm Maggie Zhao.

00:00:12.680 And I'm Jasmine Wallace, and you're listening to Culture Club, where two writers and editors

00:00:16.620 chat about pop culture, current affairs, the internet, and our lives.

00:00:20.920 Today, we are on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nations.

00:00:25.520 We would like to pay our respects to elders past and present and extend that respect to

00:00:29.880 any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander listeners today. I can't believe that after over five years

00:00:39.520 of doing this podcast, we are about to utter this sentence for the first time. We are releasing a

00:00:44.580 video version of the podcast, a vodcast as they call it. If you will. So exciting. I feel like

00:00:51.160 we've been kind of old faithfuls to like the actual audio podcast landscape and format, but

00:00:56.700 yeah super excited to be and a bit nervous to be fully on video but we'll see how it goes yes

00:01:02.880 we are just dabbling okay so it'll be occasionally and maybe just a bit random in your feeds by the

00:01:09.420 way those videos will be found on youtube which is linked below otherwise all your other platforms

00:01:15.220 they'll stay the same the week that this episode is being released is such an auspicious week do

00:01:21.560 you know why Jazz? Well one thing I'm super excited for is the Wuthering Heights premiere

00:01:26.060 tonight. That's not what I meant but I love that you're so G'd up for this. You're like yes this

00:01:33.200 is marked in the calendar. It's been a long time coming. It has but I was actually talking about

00:01:37.660 something else. So this is quite a rare occurrence but this week it is all it's Lunar New Year,

00:01:45.380 Ramadan and Lent all in the same week. And that's never happened before? I think it might have

00:01:50.720 happened before but like it's just it doesn't happen often oh that feels like really cool like

00:01:55.660 spiritually like everyone's in sync exactly so I'm feeling really good especially after our

00:02:01.000 conversation around like lunar new year and people turning Chinese last week thank you to everyone

00:02:07.540 for like the nice discourse and comments and it's been nice to have that out there yeah and how are

00:02:12.380 you feeling about lunar new year this year great I'm so excited so by the time this episode's out

00:02:17.140 my family would have already celebrated Lunar New Year and we do that by having a big hot pot

00:02:22.580 family dinner. Yum. Yum. I don't know about you, but I feel like this week has been really

00:02:27.660 heartwarming for culture of all types. I think one major, major pop culture moment that we saw

00:02:34.140 was, of course, Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance. I'm so glad we're talking about this. This was

00:02:39.740 like one of the highlights of the week. Totally, totally. Even though it's like during an American

00:02:44.600 football game which is the most boring sport in the world sorry to our american listeners tom took

00:02:49.180 off the day of work for it he does that often like he switches his days oh i was like he took

00:02:53.220 a day of annual leave well yeah no he works on sunday instead um apparently the game was boring

00:02:58.900 seahawks versus somebody who cares patriots sorry sorry fans of the sport it's interesting because

00:03:04.600 it's such a long like slot in the day for super bowl but the play times on average 11 minutes

00:03:10.100 yeah that's why it's so boring that's why I like AFL because like it stops and starts but it's like

00:03:15.800 still quick yeah but yeah NFL they play literally like 30 seconds and they stop and they reset and

00:03:22.820 then there's like five ads it's like the game of capitalism it's so yeah and I like productivity

00:03:28.020 I want things to be efficient like game just does not feel efficient to me I also think with the

00:03:32.360 Super Bowl hopefully I'm not gonna get fact-checked on this but I think with the Super Bowl like the

00:03:36.980 final game of the season they actually stretch it out for like hours so it's a longer game than

00:03:41.620 normal but I was watching it live at home on Monday I was working from home so I took my

00:03:46.960 lunch break during that time and the lead up to it so boring but then Bad Bunny came on and I was

00:03:52.460 like this was so worth it that was theater that was a performance that was cinema I'm like shocked

00:03:59.600 at how much went into it like seeing how I can't I can imagine like imagine being the camera person

00:04:04.620 and be like oh my god you're like weaving through these bushes of people there are so many like

00:04:08.740 camera changes of course we don't know the tech of it all but it looked and felt fantastic i think

00:04:13.800 especially having bad bunny everything he represents being center stage in such an american

00:04:18.840 like patriotic holiday essentially yeah was so meaningful especially now and it still was

00:04:25.220 patriotic because we saw bad bunny at the grammys in his speech he denounced ice and talked about

00:04:32.520 immigrants as well Bad Bunny is from Puerto Rico which is an American like a United States state

00:04:38.480 so this was getting a lot of like culture war political like pundits weighing in on this lots

00:04:45.820 of MAGA people saying you know it should be in English why is Bad Bunny performing even though

00:04:51.300 he's one of the biggest artists in the world so there was a lot of kind of like culture war going

00:04:55.720 on with it and I genuinely had like an emotional reaction to his performance I didn't think I would

00:05:01.040 because obviously very American centric even so I think in Australia we still are getting like a

00:05:07.620 lot of the US news we get influenced by a lot of US culture so I think especially at being

00:05:12.600 chronically online like we're seeing a lot of like the takes around US politics at the moment

00:05:16.900 and there were multiple moments during that performance where I genuinely teared up and I

00:05:21.580 thought I felt a bit silly for tearing up and then I was like no this is so heartwarming in a moment

00:05:26.740 where politically it feels like really dire and you go online

00:05:30.340 and everyone's like it's the end of the world

00:05:32.040 and like there's so much like divisiveness happening

00:05:35.260 and then you see Bad Bunny like naming all of the American states

00:05:39.480 and territories and the flags.

00:05:41.500 Like it's been so long since we've seen like so many flags in one place.

00:05:45.280 I don't know if that's like so dramatic but I've been seeing this thing

00:05:48.800 on Twitter as well about the globalism that we were brought up around

00:05:53.000 as like children of the 90s and 2000s where like in our classrooms

00:05:56.100 we'd have like so much appreciation for different cultures i think definitely it's more in the u.s

00:06:00.400 now that that is being like stripped back a bit but i saw a few comparisons to that after the bad

00:06:05.240 bunny performance i think also just the fact that his music is so full of heart it's very tender he

00:06:11.660 speaks like so beautifully about like kind of loss kind of kind of moving away from your home

00:06:17.760 like place um and there's just so much that i think a lot of immigrants would obviously relate

00:06:24.640 to and then to see that in a place like this was so impactful i feel really bad i am a very late to

00:06:30.520 bad bunny person i only have been listening to his new album like this past week oh the shame

00:06:36.940 but it's amazing like it truly yeah obviously winning um best album of the year at the grammys

00:06:43.160 it is truly remarkable yeah and you don't need to understand the language to appreciate

00:06:47.520 the music but i am also using like the translate tool and trying to learn if i can or find it very

00:06:55.200 difficult i just want to sing along to it i'm like annoyed i can't sing along to it but i was

00:06:59.380 like whistling um the dt fm song the other day very catchy um of course donald trump has chimed

00:07:06.960 in dismissing it as absolutely terrible one of the worst ever performances of super bowl uh which is

00:07:13.280 kind of funny that they're telling on themselves because they actually ended up watching the bad

00:07:17.340 Barney performance despite the MAGA crowd having their own kind of like turning point

00:07:21.900 half time we're gonna boycott we need a safe space moment it's actually really embarrassing

00:07:27.680 to be honest so you were watching this though live as it was happening I watched it like an

00:07:32.420 hour like later on Reddit I was like I don't even know if my tv has live to air like like I was like

00:07:37.800 I don't even know how to watch this anyway but you were following the commentary as well as it was

00:07:42.960 unfolding in real time. Yes I was like on Twitter watching it at the exact same time trying to

00:07:49.440 see like what the commentary was and one thing that grabbed my attention was the claim that the

00:07:55.800 little boy who Benny hands his Grammy to is Liam Canazio Ramos so that is the five-year-old who

00:08:02.980 was detained by ICE officers when he was walking home from school in Minnesota. Yeah I actually

00:08:08.280 also saw this on my twitter i think it was as i was scrolling actually interestingly enough though

00:08:14.640 it was like a question at the start being like wait is this kid liam at the start and then uh

00:08:21.220 some of the commentary quickly went to this was liam yes i saw it from the user ed krassenstein

00:08:27.760 who has one million followers and at the time of recording i just checked before it is still

00:08:33.080 live where it says like the little boy that bad bunny hands the grammy to is liam ramos and to

00:08:38.780 clarify no it wasn't uh this little boy was representing a younger bad bunny and the fact

00:08:46.080 that this rumor took off and spread like wildfire is disturbing it's like scary how things can just

00:08:52.580 like be seen as fact especially because it picked up so much traction so quickly which added to its

00:08:58.780 validity yeah and like i was doing like looking for tweets for our tweet roundups that we do on

00:09:03.200 culture club and when i saw i was like oh my gosh that's an amazing fact like how symbolic how

00:09:07.980 beautiful like it makes me really sad that people want to like use this child who's been like

00:09:15.000 assaulted and like detained by ice officers for clout and for numbers because it's still doing

00:09:22.740 numbers and yeah the amount of people i saw falling for it like people that you and i know

00:09:28.100 liking it. I saw one musician, you know, commenting like a little love heart on it

00:09:33.260 because it's something that you would think like, oh my gosh, that's so touching. That's

00:09:37.240 so heartwarming. But it's actually dangerous. I think the speed at which people want to put

00:09:42.340 out information on the internet above trying to make things accurate and truthful, that's not

00:09:48.180 good. Like we see this happening in the right side of politics where people will like misconstrue

00:09:53.400 the truth and so we that's not good that's a bad baseline also i do want to say that like

00:09:58.440 mistaking two people of color that's got obviously its own issues and i feel like that lack of

00:10:05.040 cultural sensitivity there and just assuming that people are the same like that's that's rooted in

00:10:10.580 racism that as well because i remember like seeing the line and then being like oh my gosh that's

00:10:15.080 amazing and then i looked at him i was like that doesn't look like liam because like we all saw

00:10:19.000 that heartbreaking photo of him getting detained wearing the bunny hat like i can't think about

00:10:22.900 too much makes me want to cry and yeah being like wait no that's not him and also it's a child actor

00:10:26.760 and also can you imagine if Bad Bunny put a traumatized child on a stage in front of millions

00:10:33.540 of people in the stadium lights sound and then like that was you know put around the world to

00:10:38.800 millions of people Bad Bunny's performance was actually the most viewed Super Bowl halftime

00:10:42.720 of all time amazing that is fact checked um yeah I think this was like a real moment of

00:10:49.280 it's not just like bad bad actors or like um yeah misinformation on the right that is getting like

00:10:57.080 fake news it's also people with like who want to have the best intention like

00:11:01.940 people you know who trust journalists who trust sources it's so easy to get swept up in it when

00:11:08.020 you're just getting like a river of content in front of you like about one thing like the super

00:11:11.740 the winter olympics have kicked off in italy have you been watching anything i actually haven't

00:11:27.960 which makes me sad like the olympics was such a thing when we were kids i will say it was more

00:11:32.660 the summer olympics but i've only seen the headlines so like the american skier who had

00:11:38.360 the knee injury and like fell I didn't see her actually falling but yeah that's kind of like I've

00:11:43.140 seen the headlines also sorry this is a tangent but in school did you also have to write letters

00:11:48.560 to Olympians no well maybe but not that I remember I remember this so clearly like it was so much fun

00:11:54.140 when it's the Olympics time at um primary school specifically not when we're bloody in like

00:11:59.220 teenagers but we got to like pick an Australian Olympian and then like research him a bit and

00:12:04.240 and we wrote a letter that's so sweet a gymnast and I want to say her name was Lauren that's so

00:12:09.140 cute if you're out there but no I wanted to talk about this year's winter olympics I've only watched

00:12:15.720 a little bit myself figure skating and I've loved that but there's been some controversy that's come

00:12:22.740 out of the headlines already so AI slop has been front and center in this discourse number one in

00:12:29.840 the opening ceremony the olympics like put out this ai slot video that actually featured the um

00:12:35.840 italian actress in white lotus season two oh her name is sabrina impacciatore yeah um and they like

00:12:43.600 look back at the last hundred years of olympics but like the video is so bad she's like flying 0.76

00:12:48.260 through the air it's like all cartoon but her face changes every few seconds i saw that on twitter

00:12:54.100 i didn't realize it was actually used in the opening ceremony i thought it was like a tv ad

00:12:57.580 or something I was still like oh AI slot but I thought didn't think it was that like official

00:13:01.840 speaking of official do you know what else they did and I think this is almost worse

00:13:06.360 the Olympics put out AI generated videos on their official Instagram and social media accounts and

00:13:13.780 the thing is they actually defied their own strict guidelines for design what do you mean so there's

00:13:19.800 actually very strict guidelines of how the Olympic rings can look and like the way that the rings

00:13:23.980 overlap and the colors and everything right it's like almost 200 page booklet this is like no it's

00:13:28.940 a brand guideline right a brand guideline for the olympics yeah well i kind of see it like this is

00:13:33.620 a thing this is an institution it's been around for so many you know years and it's like a global

00:13:39.520 one of the biggest global sporting events and the fact that their ai swap that they used they would

00:13:45.200 have actually sued other people who have broken this like people are fined for breaking these

00:13:50.060 rules and why is an institution like the olympics even doing this yeah that's why i think i wanted

00:13:55.700 to talk about it because yes we keep bringing up ai slop most episodes but having such a legacy

00:14:02.680 brand do this is so lazy and it sure shows that i think the caliber of what we expect from ai still

00:14:10.440 like it's on the bottom it's on the ground like they're not even using it well yeah and it seems

00:14:15.200 like audiences are just expected to like take it like I feel like I'm getting a bit desensitized

00:14:20.360 to it like I saw that Olympic video on my feed and I was just like I don't even have the energy

00:14:26.420 to like examine this or to be outraged by it I just feel like that's why it's called AI slot

00:14:30.900 because it's like well that's that like why the standards are really going down I also saw one

00:14:37.140 this week from um the Super Bowl where Toy Story they were like in a Super Bowl commercial uh Woody

00:14:43.820 and buzz and they had also been in a commercial like 20 years prior and people saying the older

00:14:48.840 graphics looked better than the modern ones and it's like that's the difference in like graphics

00:14:53.240 like graphic design I guess and I hear you when you say that the AI slop is making you feel

00:15:00.180 fatigued I feel the same but I'm so wary of this because I think it is a tactic conscious or not

00:15:06.020 because it just like it has worn away at us that we become so normalized to it desensitized to it

00:15:12.840 And then we won't be speaking out as much about it.

00:15:15.320 I think that's why our audience likes us talking about it and appreciates like the tweets that

00:15:20.620 we make about it because it's more just like trying to hold institutions to account, like

00:15:25.540 brands to account when we're like being faced with like slop on a plate, essentially.

00:15:32.000 Part of the Olympics conversation we want to bring up is kind of a mini culture shock

00:15:36.480 headline.

00:15:37.680 I actually, okay, I live for drama, love gossip.

00:15:40.000 So I feel like this was a headline that I enjoyed getting into.

00:15:44.320 And that is that the Norwegian biathlete, Sterla Holm-Legreed, confessed live on television

00:15:50.360 that he cheated on his girlfriend.

00:15:53.120 And that was after he won bronze in his category.

00:15:56.560 By the way, if you're like, what the hell is biathlete?

00:15:59.140 I was like that.

00:15:59.880 So thank you for explaining.

00:16:00.820 No, I had to Google because, yeah, he is an individual biathlon person.

00:16:05.220 and that is a sport that combines cross-country skiing with rifle shooting I feel like that

00:16:11.820 should not be a thing so do you know if they're like shooting while skiing I assume so really

00:16:17.280 I assume so why are we talking about so much sport I know I know okay let's get back to the cheating

00:16:23.320 so live on air he says that it had been the worst week of his life quote there's someone I wanted to

00:16:31.420 share it with who might not be watching. And then I'm going to continue because I love this. This

00:16:36.480 is drama. More role play from Maggie. More role play. Seriously, no accents this time. So bear

00:16:41.040 with me. Six months ago, I met the love of my life, the most beautiful and kindest person in

00:16:46.240 the world. Three months ago, I made my biggest mistake and cheated on her. I had the gold medal

00:16:52.140 in life. And I'm sure there are many people who will see things differently, but I only have eyes

00:16:58.800 for her sport has come second these last few days yes I wish I could share this with her wow

00:17:05.760 that really is some kind of poetic words there especially with I already had the gold medal in

00:17:12.920 my life this has caused so much discourse I think it's fun like a little bit silly like

00:17:19.560 I feel a bit embarrassed for him he's like definitely made global headlines with this

00:17:26.140 um but straight away so many women online were like this is a red flag this is love bombing 0.96

00:17:31.860 this is narcissistic behavior it's manipulative but i also saw another side of the internet that 1.00

00:17:37.040 was saying like this is so rom-com coded or like it's giving fanfic like i want a movie about this

00:17:42.220 asap what are your thoughts i was like my overriding thought was wow this is embarrassing

00:17:47.800 for everybody involved i was like wow i i don't know where you're throwing around big words like

00:17:55.300 love bombing and narcissism i would more so say like kind of how how much did he not read the

00:18:03.520 room that he thinks he wants his cheating on his girlfriend like outed to the whole world like in

00:18:09.920 what world did she want that number one like did she like was she wanting that grand gesture

00:18:16.000 um and it turns out she doesn't we'll get into how i how we feel about it more but um in a

00:18:22.860 Norwegian newspaper she said anonymously quote even after a declaration of love in front of the

00:18:29.480 whole world it's hard to forgive I did not choose to be put in this position and it hurts to have

00:18:34.200 to be in it we've had contact and he is aware of my opinions on this. Sterla actually responded to

00:18:39.900 this saying I deeply regret sharing this personal story my apologies go to Johan Olav who deserved

00:18:46.440 the attention after winning gold they also go to my ex-girlfriend who unwillingly ended up in the

00:18:51.580 media spotlight that reads to me it's like he was thinking about himself the whole time not her

00:18:56.840 but about him yeah and i do think first of all there's two points one why are you cheating on

00:19:03.820 your girlfriend of six months after three months i was saying that i was like wow three months is

00:19:08.760 like you can't keep your hands up each other you want to be around each other all the time like

00:19:12.240 full honeymoon stage at three months i don't know why he gave like all that timeline unnecessary

00:19:17.760 yeah second of all don't you think that these grand gestures of love are kind of like the

00:19:25.840 moments in movies that you see all the time it's giving like the man racing through the airport or

00:19:32.760 julia roberts at the press uh press function in notting hill you know it's like he's in front of

00:19:40.220 all the cameras of the world and he has a moment in front of a microphone and instead of talking

00:19:44.820 about his sport or his job he talks about like the the girlfriend he's trying to win back I'm not

00:19:51.360 saying I think it's right but I'm saying like I can I can see how he would be conditioned to think

00:19:56.440 like this is a grand romantic gesture like this will make her forgive me because it's like romantic

00:20:01.980 wait you're kind of right because in my head I just pictured 90s Hugh Grant saying the same

00:20:07.460 speech and I was like oh and I was like oh that's nice so maybe that's what I need god I think in

00:20:15.040 this way to differentiate like what's romantic what's not it's like the impact that it has on

00:20:20.860 the person that's actually receiving it doesn't matter about your intent of how you want to come

00:20:25.580 across but it's about how it lands with the person that you actually want and like usually in rom-coms

00:20:31.040 the receiver is open and wanting that whereas in this case I don't think so

00:20:35.840 zayn malik has made a bombshell revelation on the call her daddy podcast this week claiming that he

00:20:52.360 was never in love with his ex-girlfriend of six years gigi hadid so the biggest quote that is

00:21:00.220 making the rounds is this oh god I won't do it I don't know the accent or whatever um he said

00:21:06.900 at that moment in time I might have thought it was love but as I've gotten older I've realized

00:21:12.760 maybe it wasn't maybe it was lust maybe it was this maybe it was that I don't feel like it was

00:21:18.440 love we'll play the biggest kind of pull quote that's been making the rounds now you said in

00:21:23.720 an interview that you don't know if you've ever truly been in love do you still stand by that

00:21:28.120 yeah yeah because like my understanding of love is always developing you know at that moment in

00:21:35.080 in time i might have thought it was love but as i've got older i realized maybe it wasn't

00:21:40.880 maybe it was lust maybe it was this maybe it was that um i don't feel like it was love and and to

00:21:46.440 be fair like just to say this on record i will always love g because she is the reason my child

00:21:53.960 isn't you know on this earth and I have the utmost respect for her. I will always love her

00:22:00.300 but I don't know if I was ever in love with her. So I listened to this episode and I only listened

00:22:07.440 to it on audio so I didn't watch the video and I actually think it came across so differently

00:22:12.800 with the video. Really? I saw the snippet of the video on Twitter and I still was like that's a

00:22:20.140 shitty thing to say hit me with it tell me what you thought yeah I just thought like oh my god

00:22:24.300 imagine like the father of your child the person you spent over half a decade with like getting on

00:22:30.220 a microphone on a podcast that's heard by millions of people saying that he was never in love with

00:22:35.680 you like it just seems unnecessarily cruel and you can cushion it with like I have the utmost

00:22:40.400 respect for G and he also goes on another part like this is no disrespect to past relationships

00:22:44.880 just because you say that doesn't mean it's still like not disrespectful do you think he's talked

00:22:49.780 to Gigi about this though like surely this would be wild if he was always like I love you like I'm

00:22:56.380 in love with you like during the relationship has never spoken about the this kind of change

00:23:01.080 or how he feels now and then went on a massive podcast to talk about it that's true like we

00:23:06.940 don't know the conversations they've had about this it's clear that he's done like a lot of

00:23:11.840 soul searching and growing and like yeah lots of thinking about himself and his like behaviors in

00:23:18.900 the past i could i see where it's coming from of like oh i thought i knew what it was but it was

00:23:23.740 like it's changed for me or whatever and like we're not here to police anyone's language or how

00:23:28.340 they feel i just think like the format of it being on call her daddy is like that's the shocking

00:23:33.660 thing yes okay so my biggest opinion here is that he did not need to say this yeah i mean loki she

00:23:39.500 did ask okay she did ask him outright like do you still this way do you still feel this way like you

00:23:45.020 said that you like had never been in love with someone so yes she did ask him but I don't think

00:23:51.360 he had to be as explicit like this yeah I will say though again I want to give the caveat that

00:23:57.820 on audio it didn't sound that bad I was like oh obviously I was shocked when I first read the

00:24:02.340 headlines but when I actually listened to it I was like you know what I have respect for him

00:24:06.580 to try untangle the differences between love lust being in love with someone adoration and

00:24:14.680 all these jumble of emotions that can feel similar but are quite different and like if

00:24:20.380 that's his truth and that he wasn't in love with her I'm like yeah like I don't know I was like

00:24:27.400 okay like I wasn't offended by that yeah I mean yeah that's his truth right so surely Gigi knows

00:24:36.260 about this surely surely surely surely they've had this conversation whether it's in therapy or

00:24:40.300 whatever but I think people are just reacting because it's a big thing to say like the father

00:24:45.340 of your child the person you shared a life with had a house with like we're building a family with

00:24:49.660 being like yeah I was never in love with you that is brutal it is it is but it's also actually quite

00:24:56.720 common I think seeing okay this is happening in the episodes of girl of girls that you watched

00:25:02.120 season one but it's like that it's quite common I think for people to be in a relationship

00:25:06.660 and towards the end of the relationship realize that they love each other a lot but they're not

00:25:11.160 in love I've seen this in friends and I'm like not the tv show but in in real life friends like

00:25:16.380 this is not the most uncommon thing but do you think this is going so deep now it's like psychology

00:25:21.280 but do you think that like because it's like the relationship is ending by the end of the

00:25:25.400 relationship it's like they've fallen out of love and it's like oh I love you like a friend or a

00:25:29.860 family member you're right and then it's like on reflection actually did I ever love you but surely

00:25:34.240 Like, how do you get to that point of the end of a relationship

00:25:36.660 without, like, going through the stages of love?

00:25:38.860 That's true, actually.

00:25:40.280 You make a good point.

00:25:41.200 It's kind of like revisionist.

00:25:43.560 Yeah, perhaps he's, like, protecting, like, his past heart or something.

00:25:48.340 You're right, you're right.

00:25:49.820 Man, this is so, like, culture up, it gets so deep.

00:25:52.440 No, you can't convince me a bit.

00:25:54.520 But, yeah, I'm still of the mind that he just did not maybe need

00:25:58.340 to go into it like this.

00:25:59.620 Yes.

00:26:00.000 This is bringing back up a criticism that I think we've spoken about

00:26:04.020 on the podcast before but it's alex earl's like interview style the journalism the interview

00:26:10.240 style that is very much like not interrogating anything further it's like she wants to be

00:26:17.160 friends with all the celebrities on the podcast and so therefore she's just like yeah no totally

00:26:22.180 yeah yeah yeah i get that okay okay i have a difference in opinion because she is a celebrity

00:26:28.640 podcast interviewer she's not like she's she would not call herself a journalist surely 0.97

00:26:33.620 if she did then of course this is very valid criticism she she has podcast gets on because

00:26:40.340 of that rapport that feels quite casual actually in this episode um Zane's like they say that Zane's

00:26:47.700 team actually reached out to her for this repeat interview so it's not like she's approaching

00:26:51.640 these people celebs go to her because they know they'll have like quite like a safe time that's

00:26:56.180 what i mean though like yeah it's like a safe fluffy space there is space for that of course

00:27:00.880 she's not like diane sawyer or something but like yeah just people it's like come up again with the

00:27:05.340 same interview of like she's not actually interrogating anything it's like just two

00:27:08.780 friends chatting which i think yeah there's a space for that but there needs to be something

00:27:13.400 else and it reminds me a lot of the conversation about content creators getting sent to press

00:27:18.260 junkets or on films or whatever um instead of journalists at publications or people who are

00:27:24.940 independently like freelance journalists because they know the content creators are going to say

00:27:28.920 something like really fluffy really safe and not ask for example like why is Heathcliff not played

00:27:36.520 by a brown person yeah it's just going to be super fluffy so yeah that's like something that I'm

00:27:41.040 seeing so much of which I think we've spoken about before and I am of the belief that I'm 1.00

00:27:45.680 trying to like move with the times as well right and a press junket can have a lot of different

00:27:49.360 things and so long as we're keeping the journalists with time with um with talent and making sure that

00:27:56.340 we're getting like more hard-hitting interviews I don't mind having like a variety of outputs

00:28:01.400 I'm thinking like I might think about what's his name that short British guy that's problematic

00:28:06.080 carpool karaoke guy James Corden sure um but like carpool karaoke people could argue what's that

00:28:14.400 giving to the journalism like yeah it's all they're all part of the same world and there's

00:28:19.480 different places for them i just think like we're seeing so much more of it now with like

00:28:24.080 journalism and newsroom like being totally gutted um and everyone becoming content creator and then

00:28:31.160 i just feel like the weight distribution used to be more even and now it's definitely more

00:28:35.680 leaning on like content creators are getting the opportunities over like journalists people who've

00:28:41.100 been like fired from publications I think that's what my issue is it's like that it used to be like

00:28:45.420 a bit more balanced and the journalists were like oh my god what are you guys doing here and then it

00:28:49.200 was like now it's like this is good being on video you can see my hand signals yeah you can check

00:28:56.200 that out. Britney Spears has sold the rights to her entire music catalogue. We don't know the 0.78

00:29:13.240 details exactly of this. It is said that she sold it to independent music publisher Primary Wave

00:29:19.240 on the 30th of December for apparently around $200 million USD,

00:29:25.360 which is $280 million AUD.

00:29:29.460 Okay, low-key, does that sound like not that much money?

00:29:32.300 It sounds like not that much money for Britney Spears.

00:29:36.340 Yeah. 0.72

00:29:36.960 Why did she do this?

00:29:37.860 All the articles I've seen is very much just like,

00:29:40.780 Britney sold the rights to her catalogue,

00:29:42.480 and in 2023 she wrote a memoir, and this is her ex-husband.

00:29:47.280 Yeah.

00:29:47.720 I feel like there's nothing like, what does this mean for the music industry?

00:29:50.360 What I saw when I was reading as well is like, she has had quotes which have said that she

00:29:55.420 wants out of the music industry, that she doesn't want to be in it anymore.

00:29:58.820 And then this would be, I guess, a legitimate reason why.

00:30:03.320 It follows with a big trend of more musicians selling their entire catalogue, which feels

00:30:09.260 wild to me.

00:30:10.260 So artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake and Shakira have

00:30:15.880 recently sold their catalogues.

00:30:17.720 But no one is saying like why they're selling the catalogs.

00:30:21.400 Yeah, there was an ABC article I read that was like, it's an immediate payday.

00:30:25.780 That's one of the biggest drivers here.

00:30:27.900 You're getting a pay out.

00:30:30.260 Whereas, of course, a lot of artists will operate on touring or royalties or having to like sell merch or actually like make more music.

00:30:39.040 Whereas this is like one and done.

00:30:40.940 primary wave who britney sold the rights to have also acquired the estates of notorious big prince

00:30:49.300 and whitney houston so three of the most like influential musicians of the 20th century

00:30:54.640 i want to know more about primary wave yeah it is interesting are you i know seriously

00:31:00.500 i am nervous about this trend obviously none neither of us work in the music industry but

00:31:07.120 to me it sounds like such a like heartbreaking move for an artist to do and I don't think

00:31:13.380 artists are doing it willy-nilly like you probably are so attached to the catalog of music you

00:31:18.980 produced and you're essentially giving up all the future income you could have earned from that and

00:31:24.560 instead the new owners can do whatever they want so the catalog of music includes the masters and

00:31:30.780 the right to publishing so in my head anyone can correct me if I'm wrong but like someone could use

00:31:36.980 a Britney song completely remix it get another artist on it to re-sing it and then release that

00:31:42.720 that seems like why would you do that did you see the headline that Britney like wanted to tour

00:31:48.520 as well like someone sent me a reel or a headline being like Britney said she loved to come to

00:31:54.360 Australia and I was like that's maybe for a holiday yeah I don't know about you but I just

00:32:00.400 feel so sad whenever I see a video of Britney yeah well hopefully she's doing better and maybe this

00:32:06.580 points to a quieter life maybe she just wants I actually have no idea I don't know this girl

00:32:12.840 personally do I but I wish her the best with her payout with her 200 million USD payout I feel

00:32:20.780 like today we have so many like pop culture little popcorny bits which we haven't done for a while

00:32:25.180 but one I saw this week that made me super excited was the chicken shop day journalist

00:32:31.320 amelia de moldenberg is developing a romantic comedy for amazon mgm studios wow a new kind of

00:32:40.040 avenue for miss amelia who does everything i swear to god so she's went from hosting her

00:32:47.000 online web interview show to hosting in real life carpets i feel like she's also become a celebrity

00:32:53.840 herself as well and now look at her she's going to be creating a rom-com and starring in it she

00:33:00.520 is starring in it okay I was wondering I hadn't clicked through because I knew we're gonna talk

00:33:05.620 about this today but she's gonna be starring in it yep she's starring in it and she also before

00:33:11.000 we get into that she also directed a Maisie Peters music video recently that's why I saw her do a

00:33:16.580 little dance with Maisie Peters that's why they were dancing oh that's cool she's busy Amelia's

00:33:24.420 going to star as a quote by the book journalist whose carefully planned life unravels when a

00:33:30.340 routine celebrity interview unexpectedly turns into a romance that makes her question everything

00:33:35.420 she believes about love okay so now i i'm a bit um skeptical in a way because i'm like has she

00:33:43.140 done much acting before no not that we know of at least right she's done like little bits here and

00:33:47.800 there and then because it's so close to her real life um job and especially a lot of people are

00:33:54.260 relating this to her cute like meet cute with Andrew Anthony I was gonna say Anthony Andrew

00:34:00.480 Garfield it's like is this gonna read like a really nice rom-com or fanfic it sounds a little

00:34:06.760 bit like a fanfic like storyline I think but I believe in Amelia like I think it's gonna be

00:34:12.840 great she also has a great team behind her so um Gloria Sanchez Productions who's the company

00:34:19.320 behind book smart and will and harper are going to produce the film with amelia and then sarah

00:34:24.980 haywood is going to write the script sarah has worked on girls which you're currently watching

00:34:29.700 as well as um the netflix adaptation of emily henry's book lovers yeah i actually to be honest

00:34:37.200 i think i should be more excited about this amelia movie but i feel a little bit burned from the

00:34:43.480 emily henry people we meet on vacation yeah adaptation that was so excited about and then

00:34:48.620 it just felt like any other Netflix movie so I'm praying that this will feel more like Booksmart

00:34:54.280 a bit more elevated a little bit more indie I'm not sure if they're going to go down that path

00:34:59.220 I loved Booksmart so much when it came out I think I saw it three times in the cinema

00:35:04.160 oh love it oh and um that the main character is also the same person I forgot the name who did

00:35:11.520 apple cider vinegar Caitlin Denner yes that queen is so multi-faceted she could play

00:35:18.580 this anyway yeah I think it's super interesting that it's Amelia I could see definitely see her

00:35:24.000 being like producer like the storyline but yeah actually starring in it too it's gonna feel very

00:35:29.400 like close to home so this is only announced this week so they haven't even like started

00:35:34.420 in production or anything so I can't wait to see but it's really really cool and inspiring seeing

00:35:39.200 Amelia going from strength to strength like this I remember when she was like a journalist I think

00:35:44.460 she used to work for vice or like at least freelance video staff um her parents are like 0.97

00:35:50.360 like she's not a nepo baby she's i think she's like the uk's like rachel senate oh obviously 1.00

00:35:55.780 different with chicken shop date like that's something she's built from scratch but just 0.93

00:35:59.620 that kind of like really cool like creative woman and not a nepo baby like she's killing it so so 0.99

00:36:08.100 excited for her i feel like she's like my personal friend yeah i'm sure listeners feel the same way 0.99

00:36:11.440 like a little bit of a parasocial relationship to her because she's just so funny and like

00:36:15.400 chatty on chicken shop day so love that for her

00:36:18.520 what is the tofu theory there's a video on library takes which is a tiktok page similar to subway

00:36:36.100 takes but yes shot in a London college library that has been making the rounds and I've been

00:36:42.520 wanting to talk about it so the interviewer interviews Olivia who is a student studying

00:36:48.000 social anthropology with politics and her take was quote men's views on tofu directly reflect

00:36:54.760 their views on women have you dived into this jazz or can I get like a first take of this

00:37:00.820 my first take on it was like I see where she's coming from I see what she means because if I

00:37:06.720 am talking to a man and they kind of turn their nose up a tofu or like um yeah turn their nose up

00:37:14.380 or make a comment about it then I do feel like it's a little red flag but then I also was like

00:37:22.380 is it that deep and I know everything is that deep but I don't know maybe with everything else

00:37:28.080 going on I was just like I don't have time to like deep dive into this okay fair enough I will

00:37:34.240 also play a clip that Olivia posted on TikTok when she like she kind of further explained herself 0.84

00:37:39.860 I was pointing to a very specific effective response rooted in disgust that I find heterosexual

00:37:47.700 men often have when I mention tofu or I'm eating tofu or any sort of soy product and it was talking

00:37:53.960 about contexts where soy products, especially tofu, are used as a meat substitute. And basically,

00:37:59.420 the point I was just trying to make is that I think this hostility, these specific responses

00:38:03.420 towards tofu, veganism, vegetarianism, soy products in general, signify a greater hostility

00:38:09.300 towards women or anyone that sort of threatens heterosexual, often white men's dominant position

00:38:16.560 in society. Jazz, you have been a lifelong vegetarian. Yeah. Do you feel like this rings

00:38:21.600 true yes I definitely think that being seen as vegetarian is like more of a feminine thing

00:38:29.340 don't know why why is that I don't know I think terribly so a lot of women feel burdened more so

00:38:37.400 by like this is big generalizations but there have been studies on this as well um women feel

00:38:43.920 burdened by global uh like social issues and i do think environmentalism is something that really

00:38:52.360 does fall on the shoulders of women i think people have made a comparison about like how

00:38:58.520 um the lengths that some afab people go to like have reusable period products yeah whereas like

00:39:05.360 oh yeah i wrote about this for franary 29 yeah like this sounds very familiar and then like

00:39:10.200 things about like yes again massive generalizations around gender but like

00:39:14.360 big oil cars and like four-wheel drive yeah and like meat is such like a status symbol

00:39:21.340 for men like smoke the barbecue and like barbecue being like a genre of men like when you like are

00:39:29.660 trying to buy father's day presents or whatever and my dad is so not like that at all but yeah

00:39:36.940 it's like a stereotype of a man and then i guess eating tofu is a stereotype of a woman i have an

00:39:41.500 example in my own life so my granddad who i used to live with he is very like um traditionally

00:39:49.940 male like um australian man you know he's like a young adult like the 70s 80s um very big meat

00:39:59.600 eater and i'm vegetarian and i would like cook tofu or that was like my substitute for a long

00:40:05.700 time he like turned his nose up at it or was like oh what's all this about kind of and then over the

00:40:12.120 years it was like oh here like try some and like try a little bit here try a little bit there

00:40:16.360 and now he like genuinely likes it and will if I'm like over the house he'll eat it with us now

00:40:22.920 so I think that's funny because it was like a yeah like oh what's all this like it's too fancy

00:40:29.020 or it's too like it's not real or whatever but then a lot of men go on to eat it and enjoy it

00:40:38.460 because yeah it does feel a little bit of a gender stereotype but I think this is like

00:40:42.080 yeah it's it's getting quite it's an interesting take but I think it is a little deep yeah but

00:40:49.440 okay there's two things I want to say here so number one I feel like the tofu thing and she

00:40:53.420 relates it to just generally soy bean products that the term like even soy boy like there's so

00:41:00.260 much connotation of being effeminate or even there's a lot of misinformation around like

00:41:05.020 the the links between eating soy and like dramatically increase estrogen which yes isn't

00:41:10.280 true can you explain what a soy boy is for a listen it's it relates to another word cuck yeah

00:41:17.400 it's like soft boy but like again effeminate like almost submissive like not very strong

00:41:25.200 uh like creative whipped similar we're just like throwing buzzwords out we really are aren't we

00:41:32.200 sorry google it i can't do any better than that um and then to your other point about like your

00:41:38.880 grandpa right i do think like tofu this is so funny to me because um as a few other creators

00:41:44.080 touched on in the other videos like tofu soy products are very like much a staple in love

00:41:48.440 asian and other cultures so it's like what do we mean but it's true it's like almost like an

00:41:53.180 open-mindedness thing if people haven't like grown up with it haven't had it their willingness to

00:41:57.600 try even just like in general willingness to try foods from other culture i think

00:42:02.180 tells you a lot about a person yes and linking it back to the take from the first place yeah i think

00:42:08.620 yeah i agree with her on that point of like it does the reaction to it says a lot and can i just

00:42:15.660 even like removing gender out of it when i talk to people and they're like i hate tofu i'm like

00:42:20.220 really you're just not having it properly and that's the hill i will die on sure you can like

00:42:24.920 dislike there's so many types of tofu guys like really like yes you're the problem if you don't

00:42:30.480 like if you are not willing to try different types of tofu or you just think tofu is just like one

00:42:35.420 note bland thing i think you're the problem last night i went out for chinese with laurie and our

00:42:41.200 friends lizzie and charlie at empress oh love and um we had deep fried tofu yeah and it was yeah

00:42:49.220 so good so good and like good it was so like greasy and crispy and i was like i've never had

00:42:55.700 tofu like this way before you literally have in so many ways even in desserts etc it's so good

00:43:00.920 podcast sponsored by big soy

00:43:03.000 it's now time for bookmarked maggie what have you been loving watching reading or listening to

00:43:18.960 this week i have a podcast episode recommendation it is called the paradox of petty problems why

00:43:26.060 small problems can snowball and that is in the abc's podcast all in the mind which is hosted by

00:43:32.540 sana kadar i love this podcast like little um pop psychology 30 minute episodes fun topical

00:43:39.060 but this one really resonated i kind of tune in and out of the podcast but i was like wow i feel

00:43:44.940 so seen i'm someone who even though i'm quite like a empathetic person or compassionate whatever

00:43:51.620 I get really brought up by small things and that is a flaw of mine and I am aware of it right

00:43:57.900 so things like even walking to the studio today like slow walkers in front of me I was like I

00:44:02.240 cannot get around you or things like one thing I'm really working at is that concerts I get

00:44:07.160 really frustrated at sometimes like the people around me like if they're like in my personal

00:44:12.640 space like touching me or like being really loud during the set whatever those things like

00:44:17.600 they grind my gears so much and i'm really bad at handling small that's funny i wouldn't say

00:44:23.100 i wouldn't say that you're that type of person i think you do a good job of like hiding it

00:44:27.380 yeah um so little pet peeves um they are really infuriating to me i also think like living with

00:44:36.480 a partner and having like small household things that perhaps like are so much like they don't

00:44:42.180 matter like example this is not one but like actually no this is one so like not putting

00:44:46.860 dishes in the sink for instance and it's like somewhere else oh my god that grinds my gears so

00:44:50.740 much right anyway this podcast looks at it with a psychologist and um they talk about like why

00:44:58.060 these small annoyances can really like impact us and it's like almost embarrassingly so and how it

00:45:03.100 can kind of add to or contribute to chronic stress and like loki this actually feels relevant to me

00:45:09.880 and they go into why you shouldn't judge yourself for feeling this way and how elements of acceptance

00:45:16.160 and commitment therapy can help you like navigate this and I think the biggest kind of tick or like

00:45:22.280 flick in the brain that really resonated with me was when they were talking about radical acceptance

00:45:26.200 which I hadn't heard about before but essentially it's like the ability to accept situations that

00:45:31.380 are outside of your control without judging them which reduces your own like suffering um yeah so

00:45:38.220 it's similar kind of to the let them theory but I prefer this one because it's about yourself

00:45:41.980 almost and one other part I liked about this it's not just about being like yeah like whatever like

00:45:47.240 let them do that or let them slow like slowly walk but in the episode they say like really

00:45:52.860 think about the values that you have and like do these little annoyances or your reaction to them

00:45:57.700 actually line up with your values or even like it sounded intense but like think about when you're

00:46:03.200 80 years old and you get a birthday card or like it's a speech at your birthday what do you want

00:46:07.180 people to say about you and the way that like you value things and it's really reshaped like how I

00:46:12.920 feel about some of these situations so wow sounds impactful yeah impactful for sure now what is your

00:46:20.820 recommendation of the week I referenced this the other week when I had that big like film day on

00:46:26.060 a Sunday and another thing I watched was an SBS documentary called Charmy and Clift Life Burns

00:46:32.180 high and the like little bio said it followed the life of one of Australia's like finest writers

00:46:39.580 most prominent writers and I'd never heard of her before and I was like who is this woman

00:46:43.480 Charmian Clift was an Australian writer who kind of came to prominence in the 60s and 50s and she

00:46:51.200 was married to a war writer named George Johnson so he was like a war journalist and they got

00:46:58.600 married they had a few kids they lived in greece and they kind of had this like artist commune in

00:47:03.860 greece and they wrote books together like co-authored books and it's a documentary by

00:47:10.000 rachel lane and it just explores yeah this writer's life and um her kind of tragic and untimely death

00:47:17.620 um by suicide at i think she was like 45 years old so really really young it was a great look

00:47:24.780 at yeah this writer's life and also the impact that motherhood has on women and creative women

00:47:31.640 especially um getting into my 30s it's something I'm thinking about a lot more and it scares me a

00:47:37.920 lot the way that your creativity like has to take a back seat if you're like raising children

00:47:43.340 and so yeah it was really interesting made me very grateful for like modern contraception like

00:47:48.540 I think that would have changed her life because obviously she was like unexpectedly falling

00:47:52.000 pregnant so it's a great watch if you're interested in writers and looking at like Australia from the

00:47:59.040 20th century and like the cultural connotations of all that um but yeah it's just like a really

00:48:03.960 well-made documentary so I really enjoyed it it's beautiful you're really like diving into the

00:48:08.800 history banks like that's amazing yeah seriously like I've never heard of her either me either I

00:48:17.120 was like how have I never heard of this like prominent writer she also used like wrote for 0.99

00:48:20.800 she had like opinion columns and like women's magazines and newspapers and um yeah she kind 1.00

00:48:26.120 of reminds me a little bit of um Sylvia Plath in the way that John Hughes like was her like they

00:48:35.180 were married but they were also competing against each other it's kind of similar well that leads

00:48:39.120 us to the end of the episode thank you lovely listeners for tuning in once again if you feel

00:48:45.340 like it please give us a rate and review on spotify or apple we really appreciate it

00:48:51.280 and until then we'll catch you next time bye

Culture Club - February 16, 2026

Zayn's Never Been In Love, The Olympics' Cheating Scandal & What's The Tofu Theory？

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