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We made a collabisode with Dr. Matthew Gabriele of American Medieval, a real life historian of medieval history! It turns out that there's actually a significant crossover between internet culture and the middle ages. We are as surprised as you are. Links American Medieval Hyperallergic article about crusadercore Find Us Online  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue Website: https://wowiftrue.com/ Email: [email protected] About Us  Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Will you come to our cottage... to talk about Heated Rivalry with us? The beloved Queer Hockey Show™ has taken over the internet, so who better to talk to us about it than very online Multitude CEO and Heated Rivalry/romance novel superfan Amanda McLoughlin!? (For some reason my audio is ass, but I am saying it is an homage to the amount of ass that appears in Heated Rivalry.) Find Us Online  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue Website: https://wowiftrue.com/ Email: [email protected] About Us  Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're back for the new year, joined by pop culture writer + narrative strategist Eteng Ettah to create a bingo card for the cursed events of 2026 that likely await us. We apologize in advance, both for mentioning possible horrors like "MrBeast IPO" and "Caroline Ellison book deal," but also, because Amanda was at her parents' house and recorded on AirPods. Links Bingo cards! Get your bingo cards!!: https://www.wowiftrue.com/2026-bingo/ (... we talk more about how we "made" this on the Patreon) Eteng's newsletter: https://www.etengettah.com/ Eteng's podcast: https://www.instagram.com/considercomfortpod/ Find Us Online  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue Website: https://wowiftrue.com/ Email: [email protected] About Us  Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown (but this episode was edited by Julia. Schifini!). Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's holiday time! That means you get a stocking stuffer worth of an episode -- a handful of topics we wanna chitchat about but aren't big enough for their whole episode (Is this how stockings work? Amanda is writing this). So, tune in for: we didn't get 30 under 30 because we didn't do fraud; what do Elon Musk, Luigi Mangione, and Isabel J. Kim have in common; 'Extremely kidpilled' Sam Altman; random tangents about baseball?; and Amanda's embarrassing temptation to buy an AI wearable. Also Isabel is on a train at one point. But at no point do either of us do fraud. If you're wondering, you can indeed hear the "secret sauce" on our Patreon. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We finally give Mr. Don't Die himself, Bryan Johnson, his own episode, on account of him doing some seminal college student activities. You know, like doing drugs while listening to a Grimes set. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

TW: we talk about suicide induced by ChatGPT and lawsuits related to these suicides in this episode! We talk about the lawsuits that Social Media Victims Law Center brought against OpenAI and the ways in which ChatGPT and other AI products can super negatively impact mental health, to deeply worrying degrees. We also talk about the patterns in AI "chosen one" and "religion" narratives—have you heard the good word of Spiralism? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We read a bunch of articles about the state of dating/dating apps and yes, THAT gooning article, and talked about them. It's like English class where you read a bunch of stuff and talk about it except you haven't done the reading!!! But you can do the reading. It's right here. This is the reading. Reading The Goon Squad (Harper's) "But PornosexualGooner101 Died 35 Years Ago...This Very Night!" (The Chatner) The Trouble With Wanting Men (NYT) Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now? (Vogue) Other Stuff Follow-up interview w/ Goon Squad writer Wait, people actually use Facebook Dating? The best dating apps aren't even dating apps Meet the goonettes About Us  Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Amanda went viral on Tiktok for having an AI pet. Really, this is the apex of our journey on this podcast. The Moflin is an AI-enabled pet that retails for $430 dollars, and Amanda has just spent a month living with it in her home. Also, we talk about Grimes' new music video. (Behind the scenes supplementary moflin content on Patreon!) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're teaming up with Dr. Claire Aubin of our sibling show, This Guy Sucked, to talk about something that is not a guy, but does suck: the internet! It's easy to say that the internet sucks, but what makes it suck, how did it get this way, and how can we fix it? Using Cory Doctrow's new book "Enshittification" as a guide, we talk it out. Find Us Online  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue Website: https://wowiftrue.com/ Email: [email protected] About Us  Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The news cycle of 2025 has somehow once again broken us so severely that we have simply just opted out and decided to talk about Silksong, a game that people waited so long for that they created a whole new genre of shitposting. Also, Undertale and Pokopia, the forthcoming game that makes us confront everything we've ever known about Ditto. If you were hoping that we were going to talk about The News, check out the new episode of Close All Tabs! This is #notsponsored! But we are #sponsored by Isabel's book which you can pre-order now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Did you have to verify your government ID to listen to this podcast? We hope not, but in some parts of the world, this is becoming a reality. We're talking about why age verification laws are becoming more popular in the U.S. and U.K., and how the pursuit of children's online safety -- when legislated irresponsibly -- can just create new problems of surveillance and censorship. Also, Isabel went to the Hugos. She lost. She gave George R.R. Martin his own high school yearbook to sign. It was weird. We talk about that here, too. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're chatting with Kaila Yu, author of "Fetishized," about her experience growing up online in the 90s and 00s and reckoning with her relationship to Asian fetishization. Yu started as an "import model" and pin-up girl who appeared in "Playboy" and the "Fast and Furious" franchise, then became a MySpace star and lead of the all Asian-American punk band Nylon Pink, and now, she's a writer and content creator studying the portrayal of Asian women in the media. Links "Fetishized" by Kaila Yu Kaila's Instagram & TikTok Find Us Online  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue Website: https://wowiftrue.com/ Email: [email protected] About Us  Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We spent last episode taking to AI chatbots. What if we, two humans, simply chatted with each other while speaking in NPR voices? Don't worry, the NPR voices don't last long. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Isabel and Amanda sacrifice the sanctity of their souls and talk to Ani, the very horny anime waifu that is now part of Elon Musk's Grok app. But don't worry, we balance it out by telling you a weirdly wholesome story about Tony Hawk. [This episode is NSFW; if you do not want to hear an AI panda talk about burning down schools, you also might wanna skip this one] Sources Amanda's article about Ani and Bad Rudy Find Us Online  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue Website: https://wowiftrue.com/ Email: [email protected] About Us  Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Isabel and Amanda talk about two very different kinds of AI grift. In one, a man pretends to be real social media for the (probably) AI band "The Velvet Sundown." In another, Soham Parekh simply gets employed by every single AI startup at once. Sources The Velvet Sundown: https://medium.com/@andrew.frelon/i-am-andrew-frelon-the-guy-running-the-fake-velvet-sundown-twitter-fcab2b7e471b Soham: https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/03/everyone-in-tech-has-an-opinion-about-soham-parekh/ Find Us Online  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue Website: https://wowiftrue.com/ Email: [email protected] About Us  Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.