Is TikTok Doomed in the U.S.?, How To Use ChatGPT Discreetly

Welcome to #Millennial, the home of pretend adulting and some real REAL talk this week. But first: Taylor interrupts Pam's nighttime routine with a late night drop of The Tortured Poets Department. Does it live up to the hype? Did Andrew just confess to murdering former members of the pod? A not-so-fun update in the name of resiliency: Laura shares that she has multiple sclerosis (MS), what her journey to diagnosis looked like, and how she's doing now. What it's like to move through the stages of grief and eventually reach a space of processing through humor. We cover questions from our Patrons to go a little more in depth on Laura's experiences living with a chronic illness. Most important of all, we talk about the representation of MS in The West Wing, Laura's favorite show. As we continue on this journey we call life, we'll face different hurdles that challenge our mental health. How are we all doing? The panel shares what outlets help us get a mental break from the tough shit, and what resources we use to work through it. Journaling, limiting distractions, mid-day walks, crossword puzzles are all things we here at the show use to break up our days and limit stress and anxiety. Pam shares the 4-7-8 Breathing Method as well as the 5-4-3-2-1 Coping Technique This week's recommendations are good for the soul: donate to the Shepherd Center for World MS Day (Laura), Brick to help limit screentime (Andrew), and attending the yearly Record Store Day (Pam). And in this week's installment of After Dark, available on Patreon and Apple Podcasts: "If your dog and a loved one were drowning and you could only save 1, who would it be?" "Umm which 'loved' one are we talking about?" Inspired by a NYT Ethics column, we'll be playing a classic game of 'Would You Rather...?' What's worse? Having legs as long as your fingers, or fingers as long as your legs? (We spend way to much time imagining how this would play out - absolute nightmare fuel.) Andrew hits us with a super secret surprise question... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to #Millennial, the home of pretend adulting and real talk! The juice is loose (in hell) and our buttholes are puckered as things in the Middle East teeter dangerously towards a regional conflict. We were all little when the OJ drama went down, but raise your hand if you remember the bronco chase on the news? We're struggling with being over the hill: "peak millennials" (aged 33-34) are shaping the economy. Where do we see ourselves living, and do we like our living situations now? "So are y'all good?" "Uh... emotionally?" Is homeownership really the American dream we were all sold? There are definitely some perks to renting after all. Andrew is going to shadow drop news of his nuptials, so don't expect a wedding invite sorry not sorry. Like our other milestones, will millennials just have kids later in life? We don't want kids, are we part of the problem? There is no common thread in this week's recommendations: 'Fallout' on Amazon Prime (Laura), investing in a walking pad (Pam), and using this tool to check the status of your tax refund (in the United States). And in this week's installment of After Dark, available on Patreon and Apple Podcasts: AMA part 2! We cover questions we didn't get to last week, as well as add some new ones to the mix! Do we still talk to former podcasting partners, and is there bad blood there? Andrew and Pam pique Laura's curiosity about freelancing, and Andrew gives some solid practical tips for success on Bumble BFF. Have we ever been recognized in public? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to #Millennial, the show whose name can't be spelled without three massive L's! It may have been a total eclipse of the heart in the path of totality, but Laura was underwhelmed by what 85% coverage during the solar eclipse looked like in Atlanta. Would you spend $949 to stay in a Super 8 motel to watch a major event like the eclipse? The moon ain't done slaying yet: the lunar queen is set to get her own timezone! We look at other examples of rare-ish events, and bucket list destinations and adventures! Who wore it better? Manhattanhenge or Andrew's Homehenge? Looks like most millennials have a 50-50 shot of seeing Halley's comet in 2061. Will Andrew re-evaluate his death age again in light of this knowledge? We share our own bucket list destination goals: Balloon fiesta, Devil's Pool at Victoria falls, and the Monarch Butterfly Migration. As 90's kids, it's impossible to not address 'Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,' which reveals the downright abusive environment of Nickelodeon live action shows through the 90's and early 2000s. In response to the popularity of this documentary, a 5th episode ("Breaking The Silence") aired this past weekend - do we feel it added anything to the documentary? And why was it arranged so... weird? What was it like to watch this as Nickelodeon kids ourselves? Does this completely taint our memories of the channel? We hope this week's recommendations inspire you to make things easier for yourself: Take a mental health day (Laura), TravelPro luggage (Pam), and signing up for a Spotify family plan in light of plan prices increasing (Andrew). And in this week's installment of After Dark, available on Patreon and Apple Podcasts: It's AMA time! We take our Patrons' burning questions about the BTS life of podcasting. Do we ever worry about someone we've talked shit on finding their way behind the paywall? Why have Andrew and Laura been saying no to a certain annual event? Some never before revealed MuggleSuck tea... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to #Millennial, the home of pretend adulting and real talk! Andrew recaps meeting Chloé and throwing her to the 'wolves' (Or as a normal people would call them, his friends) Vinyl records have outsold CDs for the second year running, and even cassette tapes are having a moment - what year is it?! Billie Eilish faces backlash for calling out artists who sell multiple variants of an album on vinyl, despite partaking in that practice herself. You don't want to see Pam angry: even Taylor's amount of vinyl variants have pushed her over the edge, and she's pissed! Pam provides a mini-review of Beyonce's Renaissance Act 2: Cowboy Carter and plugs her favorite tunes from the new album! Somehow Laura ended up on home surveillance footage Tiktok, and it's shocking how easy it is to go down THAT rabbit hole. What is it with people who have every single notification turned on? Let Pam water her flowers in peace! Andrew and Laura don't usually watch their live doorbell feeds, but when they do, it's because the neighbors are up to some shenanigans. Get the popcorn! PSA: You aren't obligated to hand over your home surveillance footage to law enforcement unless presented with a warrant or court order. This week's recommendations will keep you entertained and organized: X-Men '97 (Laura), Switched on Pop's podcast episode 'Beyoncé's Country' (Pam), and these custom vinyl dividers to keep your record collection nice and neat (Andrew). And in this week's installment of After Dark, available on Patreon and Apple Podcasts: Who's a petty bitch? raises hand It turns out many people self-identify as petty, so we indulge ourselves in our pettiness for a half hour. Break checking on the road, trolling online gamers, cold shouldering, and more! We've done and seen it all. We absolutely don't recommend sending your enemies exotic animal poop or gummy dicks to get petty revenge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to #Millennial, the home of pretend adulting and REAL tech talk! With a heavy tech focus this week, we look at Meta's sneaky inclusion of a new content filter, the US Department of Justice's lawsuit against Apple, and the most horrifying revelation of all: the Facebook poke is having a resurgence. We're all fans of Apple products and have no plans to ditch our iPhones anytime soon, but we can definitely see how Apple makes switching to another smartphone brand difficult. The DOJ says this amounts to harming the competitive process and costing consumers more money. At this point, Smartphones are a public utility and probably do need some regulation - but to what extent? "We 'discovered' a revolutionary secure texting technology that no one has ever thought of integrating into iPhone (until we were legally forced)." Facebook "poke" usage is reportedly up by 13x after Meta increased the feature's prominence. Let your inner child cringe at the memories of flirt poking and creepy posting. Let. it. consume. you. What even IS poking? It's flirting, right? We visit our own poke pages and find some very stale pokes we left on read for 17 years. Sorry! This week's recommendations are a grab bag: 'Quiet On Set' (available on Max, Hulu, and Amazon Prime) (Pam), Balatro (Andrew), and the glow deep serum by Beauty of Joseon (Laura). And in this week's installment of After Dark, available on Patreon and Apple Podcasts: Are you a millennial who still cuts up the plastic rings that hold six packs together to save the turtles? This installment on compulsory habits instilled during childhood is for you! Close the fridge, turn off the water, and cut the lights: YOU'RE WASTING SO MUCH ENERGY, IT'S JUST FLOOOWWING OUT! Did D.A.R.E actually work on us as a generation? Probably with most things except weed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're taking this week off from recording a regular episode, so we're releasing a recent installment of After Dark to the masses! In this chat (which was recorded after our Love Languages episode in February with Dr. Morgan Levy), our string of friendship-oriented discussions continue as we discuss the idea of "loud budgeting." How can you temper the expectations of friends when your spending habits are misaligned, but you still want to be their friend? We also discuss friendship boundaries more broadly. We record a new installment of After Dark every week! You can hear every episode by joining our Patreon or by signing up for Mega #Millennial through Apple Podcasts. By subscribing, you'll be helping us run and grow the show, so THANK YOU! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to #Millennial, the home of pretend adulting and real TikTok talk! Is a TikTok ban imminent? Where do we stand on whether or not it should be? FYI college applicants: words like "tapestry" and "beacon" are common tipoffs that you might have used ChatGPT to write your college admissions essay. We discuss how to use ChatGPT without revealing you did. We ask ChatGPT to write our hypothetical Harvard admissions essays, and the rumors are true: ChatGPT is really stuck on words like "tapestry" and "mosaic." How different is this latest trend from what has been happening since the dawn of time? People always look for ways to outsource work to save time. It's important to know how to use AI as a tool, not make it your entire strategy. This conversation reminds Pam (who is a stellar writer btw) of a college professor who really had it out for her and made her take remedial English. Critics were served some crow after months of criticism about Biden's age and cognitive sharpness when he showed up at the State of the Union and did okay. This political check in touches on all the fuckery: SCOTUS, Trump trials, and a foolish decision by the Fulton County DA. This week's recommendations will soothe and intrigue you: 'Jazz in the Rain' playlist on Spotify (Pam), Squishmallows (Andrew), and Neil DeGrasse Tyson's podcast Star Talk (Laura). And in this week's installment of After Dark: Let's go back to high school, specifically for the DANCES. How on earth did our schools think it was a good idea to include "Get Low" (a millennial fan favorite) in our middle school dances? And yes, there was bumping and grinding! "Con balls were my prom" "Come again?" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Nicole and Lexi from the Fantasy Fangirls podcast! We discuss the popularity of their show and why people connect to fandom-oriented podcasts. And they've become full time podcasters!? Millennials always have to use their brains for hard adulting things (Don't forget that tax season is coming up!). Let's normalize using our brains for FUN things just as often! We learn about A Court of Thorns and Roses, what types of audiences would be interested in this fantasy series, and why it's been huge for nearly a decade. The ACTOAR TV show has been in the works at Hulu but seems to have hit some development snags - What's going on, and will it still see the light of day? What would Nicole and Lexi like to see from an ACOTAR TV series? We criticize because we care! As "prominent voices in fandom," we discuss the backlash we receive as podcasters and how we handle it all. Have we tempered our expectations for book-to-screen adaptations after the various works we've seen so far? And who's actually done it RIGHT? How many times can we forgive an author until they authorize too many changes from the original canon? (Nicole is still recovering from The Cursed Child....) Recommendations: What the River Knows by Isabel Ibanez (Pam), AViewFromMySeat.com (Andrew), Everand (Nicole), and Anomolie and Throne of Glass (Lexi) And this week in After Dark, available on Patreon and Apple Podcasts: Smut can be a fun and light topic to talk about, but this discussion gets real when we analyze why it's so popular: How can smut help improve one's self, your confidence, and your relationship(s)? Reading these books can also help someone find out what's exciting to you, in order to feel fulfilled with your partner(s) or yourself. How do us podcasters deal with with discussing smut when you might have kids listening? Well, we've got too many other problems to juggle (And smut discussions have seriously empowered listeners, so those talks are not going away) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to #Millennial, the home of pretend adulting and real talk! Biden and Trump are each rolling out strategies to appeal to younger voters and... this is one of the results.  What can major party candidates do to reach out to younger voters without being cringe? Maybe ask Chat GPT for ideas. Biden leaning into Dark Brandon conspiracy theories? Yes please! Biden answering complicated geopolitical questions while clutching an ice cream cone? Nooooo. It's time for the hosts to reveal their monthly and yearly spends in the era of streaming wars when the average U.S. consumer is spending nearly $1k a year on streaming services. How do we stack up? Inflation relief may be coming soon to your favorite fast food joint or snack company: McDonald's, PepsiCo, and Coca Cola have all announced plans to slow their roll on price increases, and even cut some prices altogether. Wendy is trying to fuck around and find out with dynamic pricing. Who's gonna wanna pay surge prices for a square hamburger?? Watch out for increased costs to check baggage - American Airlines just announced theirs, and we suspect other airlines will soon follow. This week's recommendations will keep you organized and entertained: Clipa bag hanger (Pam), TooGoodToGo (Laura), and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Andrew).  And in this week's installment of After Dark, available on Patreon: MuggleSuck, Twilight Source and Hypable edition! Because we've worked with lots of muggles who suck. Persistent resistance to new ideas, walls of text sent at all hours of the night, and entitlement are a few of the things we've dealt with in our heyday as fandom creators. "How old is this person??" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to #Millennial, the home of pretend adulting and real talk! Ethical consumerism: is it truly possible, what are the pros and cons, and do we feel like we're better than everyone else when we make sustainable choices? :eyes: #Millennialproblems: Turns out lab-grown diamonds aren't totally conflict free (just like the millennial experience, yolo). We rag on the trend of using sustainability as a status symbol - ethical consumerism often comes with a high price tag, rendering it inaccessible for some. Let's be real: how often are we actually following up on the ethics of a company of product we like? If a deinfluencer convinces you to buy something you don't need in the name of minimalism, is that a net positive? In related news, an EU study has found that most influencers fail to disclose advertising, so how many times have we been advertised to without our knowledge? Andrew (aka your internet savvy big bro) has some helpful tips and tricks to spot when advertising is happening, even if it's not clearly disclosed. This week's recommendations are for all y'all on the move: Do a sibling road trip with your bro/sis/brother from another mother (Laura), prAna hiking gear (Andrew), and elastic shoelaces (Pam). And in this week's installment of After Dark: The friendship series part 4: dealing with picky friends. Who else face palms over friends with no service industry background making a scene at restaurants? Excessive pickiness with little self-awareness can be a red flag for bigger issues. The stunning update to Andrew's Bumble BFF journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices