Me, Uber, and a Taylor Swift podcast
Me, Uber, and a Taylor Swift podcast
When Taylor Swift psyops smacked me in the face, a moving tribute, we are so not built for this, and more podcasts and links.
Welcome to Hurt Your Brain #204, the place to get podcasts and links that will make you think, sent every few weeks.
About ten seconds into listening to a podcast about Taylor Swift conspiracy theories (see first recommendation below), an unpleasant story from earlier this year came flooding back into my memory.
It was Super Bowl Sunday, and I ended up taking an ambulance to the ER with chest pain around midnight. Everything turned out fine, but it was a very expensive way to spend several hours. I was discharged some time before 6am, and I didn’t want to make my whole family come get me.
So I called an Uber for the lift home.
This Uber driver was super friendly, had a nice smelling car, and had tons of different free snacks hanging in an organizer over the passenger seat. You can tell he’d watched all the “how to be an Uber driver” influencers, which I’m only assuming is definitely a thing.
I was exhausted and stayed mostly quiet, but after a few minutes he dropped this lovely bombshell.
“Did you watch the Super Bowl last night?”
“Yes”
“Don’t you think it’s kind of convenient that the Chiefs won? Now Taylor Swift can endorse Biden with Travis Kelce and of course the government made it happen.” (Context if you missed all this).
If my faith in humanity was Antartica, a Texas sized chunk broke off and floated away.
I couldn’t believe people really believed this shit, and that they would bring it up at 5:45 in the morning. I would have preferred invasive questions about why I was in the hospital.
“Yea I don’t know about that.” That was the limit I was willing to engage. He kept talking but I didn’t have it in me to be the happy-to-argue-against-conspiracy-theories guy, which I typically am.
All this to say, you should check out the episode below about Taylor Swift conspiracy theories, because you never know what memories it might unlock. And its good.
PODCAST RECOMMENDATIONS
Conspiracy, She Wrote: Taylor Swift Psyops
The Big Idea: Conspiracy, She Wrote is hosted by Cristen Conger and this episode does an excellent job breaking down exactly what is going on with these conspiracies swirling around Taylor Swift. Good journalism and good critical analysis. My kind of show.
I now understand what can lead a hapless Uber driver into the dark underbelly of Taylor Swift conspiracies (see story at the top).
Gaylor Swifies, Hetler Swifties, and “mesearch.” All terms I had never heard before and now I feel old. Definitely stealing “mesearch” though.
99 Percent Invisible: Not Built For This #1 – The Bottom of the Bowl
The Big Idea: A six-part series from Emmett Fitzgerald and 99 Percent Invisible that examines how our world is not built for climate change, and how it’s already changing and moving our lives.
I’ve listened to the first three episodes so far, and they are all excellent. This first episode tells the story of Fitzgerald’s hometown in Vermont that is wiped out by flooding, even when everyone felt their state was relatively climate change “safe.”
Seriously, if you are looking for a good thoughtful series that will give you new perspective, this is it.
The Daily: What Phil Donahue Meant To Me
The Big Idea: With the recent death of Phil Donahue, host Michael Barbaro pays a personal tribute to his life and influence.
I’ll be honest, I was going to skip this because I only had a vague idea of who Phil Donahue was, but the comments in The Daily subreddit convinced me to check it out.
I’m glad I did. A great episode. I had no idea Phil Donahue was a solid, moral dude who also invented the whole genre of daytime talk television. I thought he was in the mix with Gerry Springer and all those types.
PODCAST LINKS
Apple Loses Its Podcasting Lead to YouTube and Spotify. From Ashley Carman for Bloomberg.
OTHER LINKS TO MAKE YOU THINK
Visual IDEAS Newsletter. A fantastic newsletter, but I really wanted to point out the section under the “Design” heading. I keep thinking about it. “Stop presenting data. Instead, present the point of the data.”
Deconstructing Money. A new personal finance Substack from podcast producer Bethel Habte. It’s really good!
Art But Make It Sports. This entire account is someone finding a piece of art that matches a sports photo in an uncanny way. It’s not AI either, Reminds me of the old internet, and I am here for it.
VISUALS
We’ll all have our own regrets.
Follow me on Instagram for more.
FOR FUN
For therapy to work, you need to open up to me
Alaska’s Passive Aggressive Map of the USA
Alright, that’s it, thanks for being here. I’m going to add below some stuff I’m recently into as a p.s. Please share what you’ve been into.
Reading: Just finished Until The End of Time, and it’s very existential crisis inducing. Did you ever wonder how long it would take for the universe to randomly create your exact brain via quantum fluctuations? Wait what? Yes, it’s technically possible, but it would indeed take a long, long, very long time (A 10 to the power of 10 to the power of 68 years). Also, found this browsing the library, and it’s funny but very strange.
Watching: LOTR trilogy with my daughter. My goal is to convince one of my kids to read The Hobbit, and I’m almost there.
Please like or comment (or reply) if you want to share any comments. See you next time.