Epstein files firestorm shows the power of online conspiracy

The Epstein story won’t die and in MAGA circles, it’s becoming a problem. This episode breaks down why the conspiracy has such staying power, who’s running with it now, and what it reveals about the fractures inside the far right.   Jeffrery Epstein, MIT and the Grad Student Who Spoke Up: https://omny.fm/shows/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet/jeffrery-epstein-mit-and-the-grad-student-who-spok Remember Trump’s Influencers on the Epstein Files? They’re Pissed: https://www.yahoo.com/news/remember-trump-binder-influencers-epstein-203415282.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALE2eGyVYVuUQ7Iw3XlXK-4gRnbqSdJzXZ25_u0zYLgHcdvssTEXHrj7bNMZM_tlZtpkHkqfKXtoYpqHRsbODfjex4rE0acMyK2n76_-apXRlkREXs1EVL_Dtuxy_HLmIzt0xg-1YLaphFhSffgLJNE-ckWGgjWYy6Dk9NtkGR6c The FBI's Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Had Nearly 3 Minutes Cut Out: https://www.wired.com/story/the-fbis-jeffrey-epstein-prison-video-had-nearly-3-minutes-cut-out/ These are the most significant allegations in Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre's unsealed memoir: https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-jeffrey-epstein-accuser-virginia-roberts-unsealed-memoir-2019-8 I was abused by Jeffrey Epstein. Why is Trump silencing me?: https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/trump-jeffrey-epstein-victims-speak-out-silencing-l7ql9jn2b      If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2020, Target pledged to support Black creators and communities. Target spotlighted their products, and made headlines with its public commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. But now, those promises look like little more than PR spin. Black creators and vendors who once collaborated with the brand say they weren’t just abandoned — they were exploited. From one-sided partnerships to pay-to-play marketing schemes,  this episode investigates how a major corporation cashed in on the racial justice movement… and then just walked away. We speak to Kiara Imani, a former Target vendor who is one of the Black entrepreneurs  now speaking out. She was originally thrilled when a game she designed, "LikeU Cards," was included in Target's collection, only to quickly realize she was caught up in a pay-to-play scheme that was more about Target's PR than actually selling her product.  She's also an attorney and author of the book Therapy Isn’t Just For White People. She explains what went down, what she was promised versus what she actually got, and unpacks the backlash, the boycott, and why some former Target collaborators are now calling it what it really was all along: a scam. Kiara’s TikTok about Target: https://www.tiktok.com/@kiara_imani_will/video/7481347076442606894 Buy Kiara book Therapy Isn’t Just For White People: https://www.mahoganybooks.com/9781735145884 Check out LikeU cards: https://likeucards.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqCZCnuFV-4u8l9PynC9x1nNFbC0DCrVv0_IYqoRsPTvnt-FEX5 If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: Capturing The New York Times https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capturing-the-new-york-times/id1570901784?i=1000620995068 Listen and subscribe to the new season of Afterlives spotlighting Marsha P Johnson: https://www.afterlivespod.com/ Listen to Outlaws: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-outlaws-with-ts-madison-273947965/ Joe Rogan is SHOCKED that Donald Trump, whom he helped elect, is doing the awful things he consistently said he was planning do: https://gizmodo.com/joe-rogan-feels-trump-betrayed-him-on-immigration-2000624426 Is Jeff Bezos buying the iconic fashion magazine Vogue as a gift for his new wife? Our intuition says, "maybe!": https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14878623/Jeff-Bezos-Vogue-magazine-wedding-Lauren-Sanchez.html A new Virginia law to protect privacy is causing some online stores like Walmart.com to display a pop-up that asks shoppers to surrender their privacy or else shop someplace else. Progress? https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/pop-up-on-walmart-website-warns-virginia-shoppers-about-their-sexual-health-data/3952472/ The NY Times loves helping racist villains like Christopher Rufo disingenuously smear people, even if it means breaking their own reporting standards. This time, they're helping smear NYC Mayoral candidate Mamdani: https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1942057201327353964 Linda Yaccarino, former CEO of X, is calling it quits. Elon gave her a frosty goodbye and took away her blue check: https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/09/xs-ad-business-improved-under-departing-ceo-linda-yaccarino-but-its-still-tough-times-ahead/ If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is behind Candace Owens’ rebrand? Bridget explains Owens’ new playbook to Anney and Sam over at the podcast Stuff Mom Never Told You.   If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]!    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week.   instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/    tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc    youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TikTok’s “Princess Treatment”  trend has gone viral, and so has Bridget's response. It started with creator Courtney Joelle, whose videos depict how she sits silently at restaurants while her husband orders for her, speaks for her, and calls it “being a princess.” Millions of views later, Bridget wonders: is this soft girl femininity… or something more dangerous? Check out Bridget’s viral TikTok response, which got SO MANY MORE VIEWS than her other videos, even though those other videos take WAY longer to produce. It's clear what the algorithm wants! https://www.tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc/video/7520108357177330975 If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected] Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternetSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  Welcome to #SkinnyTok — a corner of TikTok where extreme thinness is framed as “discipline,” wellness becomes control, and disordered eating is dressed up as aesthetic. Even though TikTok banned the hashtag and popular creators like Liv Schmidt , the content hasn’t disappeared,  it’s just gotten harder to spot. In this episode, journalist Kat Tenbarge joins us to unpack how TikTok’s design glorifies harmful beauty standards and quietly funnels users — especially women and girls — toward content that can distort how we see our bodies and ourselves.  She explains why simply banning it doesn't work, and how creators are effectively pushing back to confront it head-on. Read more: Eating Disorder Content Is Infiltrating TikTok. Some Creators Are Going Viral Debunking It – by Kat Tenbarge, Wired Follow Kat’s work at Spitfire News: https://spitfirenews.com/   💜 Struggling or need support? Visit The Project HEAL     If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]!    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week.   instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/    tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc    youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation. Listen here and subscribe to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Bridget is joined by Producer Mike to break down the tech stories you might have missed. Weird AI-generated videos depicting Black women in racist tropes and stereotypes are suddenly showing up in our feeds. Bridget provides an update on how the videos have rapidly evolved even since Tuesday's deep-dive episode on the topic: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tiktok-minstrel-shows-are-mocking-black-women-using/id1520715907?i=1000714408197 A band that seems to have been created by AI has hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners on Spotify. Who is behind it? This rabbit hole goes deep: https://musically.com/2025/06/26/velvet-sundown-are-a-seemingly-ai-generated-band-with-325k-spotify-listeners/   RFK Jr is a reckless liar who is destroying our health system, but he'd rather talk about wearable devices: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-science-health-purge/ The man who murdered Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman seems to have used data brokers to find her address. Americans should demandA list of legal-but-sketchy brokers: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25977763-1-1/ Mattel struck a deal with OpenAI to explore fun, not at all dangerous ways to put AI in children's toys. This prototype looks particularly promising: https://www.tiktok.com/@filmsmtvofficial/video/7154710464696438043 Conspirituality podcast on MAHA: https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/259-maha-is-project-2025-trojan-horse Our TANGOTI episode about data shady brokers: https://podcasts.apple.com/ye/podcast/doxxing-101-our-personal-information-is-available-online/id1520715907?i=1000577153294See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you seen this wave of racist over the top AI generated videos featuring Black women on TikTok?  Since the release of Google’s VEO3 AI video generation platform in May, which allows users to create realistic videos from text prompts, there has been a wave of viral AI generated videos on TikTok depicting Black women using racist stereotypes and tropes.  Although the first videos were made with good intentions, their popularity has sparked copycat creators to recreate more and more extreme versions. Just like 19th-century minstrel shows reinforced a political and social climate hostile to Black people, today’s AI-driven content is being used by some to affirm a similarly hostile climate toward Black women, and prop up a political and economic system that benefits others at their expense.  Bridget studied minstrel shows in grad school, and has a lot to say about these videos that are essentially white supremacist propaganda masquerading as entertainment.  The original, not-so-bad, actually-clever video from account AI Clapback King: https://www.tiktok.com/@aiformobile/video/7512729952618286378    Conference talk about Black representation in AI, posted by AI Clapback King: https://www.tiktok.com/@aiformobile/video/7517712586712812814?_t=ZP-8xQFrwYvZqY&_r=1    EXAMPLE - Increasingly violent, decreasingly funny iteration of the original Karen video: https://www.tiktok.com/@hubbabubbablast400/video/7516178273047498015?_r=1&_t=ZP-8xQIaauZ0LX   EXAMPLE  - Big Foot (2 million views): https://www.tiktok.com/@femalebigfoot/video/7514190146695154987?_r=1&_t=ZP-8xQUzlvCtqQ    EXAMPLE - Slave Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cottonvlogsss/video/7514846240031444254?_r=1&_t=ZP-8xQV5CnNAQI    If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]!    Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week.   instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/    tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc    youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dating apps aren’t broken; they’re working exactly as designed. And for Black women, that’s a problem. In this season premiere of IRL: Online Life is Real Life, host Bridget dives into how dating apps reinforce harmful beauty standards rooted in whiteness, automating what researcher Dr. Apryl Williams calls “sexual racism” into the user experience. This is the first episode in a four-part series from Mozilla and PRX exploring how tech shapes our most personal decisions. Subscribe now to catch every episode: irlpodcast.orgSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.