Ep. 106: Too Online. 1) Queer Spotify Wrapped. 2) Elon Musk at DealBook Summit 3) The Demi-Method Makeup MLM

[00:00] Back in the lab. Oh my gosh. [00:12] Wait, is it just boys club? It's just boys club. [00:15] The Boys Club podcast? No. No. [00:18] Just boys club. Hi. Hey. [00:20] How's it going? Sorry to the listener. I have a little bit of a lost. You sound very sexy. Great. It's a very sexy vibe. It's not a sinus infection. It's sex appeal. [00:32] You know what I mean, though? There's like a raspy, like when I get sick, I'm always like, wow, I'm disgusting, but also sexy. Hot. All at the same time. It's very confusing. I'm sorry. I'm glad you're on the mend. All good. We're all good. We're here. We're ready to be on a podcast [00:50] internet stories. It's gonna be super fun. It's gonna be super fun. We had a great party on Tuesday. We had an incredible event with PayPal celebrating. [00:58] This table coin of PYUSD. [01:01] which was so fun. PayPal are amazing partners. We distributed a bunch of PYUSD into the walls of attendees and then had a silent auction for the Lower East Side Girls Club, which is an insanely amazing organization in the Lower East Side in New York. So the boys supporting the girls. Yeah, it was a great time to be had. If you're interested in learning more about PYUSD specifically

[01:31] uh, [01:32] in an increasingly global and digital world. [01:36] Parker J. Poshriot has a great piece on it that she put together. And I really recommend giving it a read. It gives you a great perspective on why stable coins are more important than ever. I wanted to tweet her stable coin piece because it's insane. It's so good. And she is so smart. And I wanted to tweet today at her and say... [02:00] Parker is so smart. She's hurting my feelings. A shout out to Caroline. We're really on theme with this today, but it would only check out to people who are [02:13] should live in burlington vermont as you will hear in the rest of this podcast [02:19] anyway the event i think really was a catalyst for your sickness oh 100 there was hookahs at the party and i was i went so hard on the hookahs and so hard i woke up the next morning and i asked you i was like natasha is there tobacco in the hookahs and you're like are you joking there's so much tobacco in hookahs you're like it's like smoking a pack of cigarettes and i i was operating [02:49] Like a 0%. [02:51] Smoke. [02:54] It was so funny to me because when you first told me, you were like, I thought it was an N.A. option. Like just the idea. It was just such a funny way to say it. I really loved it. I had the opposite problem.

[03:05] I barely smoked the hookah because of my lip flip. The suction is very difficult. And so I had to do like a side thing. And I was just like, I can't, I can't participate. And at that point, I had also had quite a bit to drink and literally nothing to eat. Not a single thing to eat. I ate one perfect combination, A++. Like a tiny little pita with some fed on it at one point through the night. And then the rest, which was sad because the food was amazing. But we had a really fun time. Gatorade was had in the morning as it should be. [03:35] I'm still not quite right. I was texting with somebody who was there yesterday and it was like two days later and she was like, I'm just getting over my hangover. And I was like, I feel that same. Anyway, I'm glad to get back online. It was fun to be IRL, but it's time to go onto the internet. Time to log on. Time to log on. Stay around. Hey, Natasha, what is crypto to you? Crypto is so much more than charts and gains. It's a whole new financial system, [04:05] creativity, ownership, wealth building, and more. Free of credit scores and spending habits, Kraken is your easy-to-use, newbie-friendly bridge to this whole new world. Everything can be better, so why not finance? To get started, go to kraken.com backslash boys club, sign up in just a few minutes, and see what crypto can be. Not investment advice, crypto trading involves risk of loss. Cryptocurrency services are provided to U.S. and U.S. territory customers by Payward Ventures,

[04:35] Today we're going to do three internet stories. And for those of you who don't know this format, we both take a story from the week that we've experienced on our internet and we tell each other about it. [04:46] So I'm excited. I'm very excited about mine. Me too. [04:50] Me too. Do you want to go first? You go first. Okay, great. Queer Spotify wrapped. [04:55] The headline by Vem Media, did your Spotify wrapped place you in Berkeley, Burlington or Cambridge? You may be gay. [05:06] Okay, so we're in Spotify wrapped, needs really no introduction. The day of the year when Spotify takes all your listening data and feeds it back to you in like an Instagrammy hyper designed way so that you can share it and signal how cool you are. [05:25] This year they introduced a new thing called your sound town, where one of the little graphics that comes up when they're in your Spotify wrapped show is a suggested town of where a lot of people share the same listening habits as you. So what was your sound town? I don't know, but I want to look because... Okay, I think we need to get to your sound town. Let's see. Let's see my sound town. As a straight woman, I would be curious to see if you got one of the three queer cities. I did. I got Cambridge. I got the bisexual capital. [05:55] burlington okay okay she's talking you know what it is caroline polichek it's caroline polichek totally or like boy genius it might have oh yeah yeah yeah um okay so basically what happened is that the spotify wrap day comes out and everyone starts sharing their thing and then all these users on social media are like wait all of us who are gay or queer are overwhelmingly being assigned

[06:25] Vermont or Cambridge, Massachusetts. And so... [06:30] And also what's funny about the about this is that they're all like kind of small, like they're all really random. It's not like Burlington, Vermont is just like, yeah, we're not like talking about some like gay oasis. This isn't Wilton Manors, Florida or something. [06:47] Yeah. So basically everyone's social media starts like connecting the dots. And basically what happens is that like people's top artists start to reveal a trend where it's like a lot of these artists are queer identifying or play to queer audiences. [07:00] very well or consistently so for genius brandy carlisle arlo parks or ian's hand flusher like all these things like you're starting to see some patterns okay i think that the tweets that came out about this were absolutely hilarious so one was spotify is trying to make a gay commune in berkeley a lesbian commune in burlington and a bisexual company in cambridge and also like there [07:30] incredible okay hilarious great the new york times did some really great journalism and reached out to burlington city the burlington city officials were like wow we woke up today not expecting what we're seeing honestly huge for them huge huge for them huge spotify said they basically created 1300 1300 sound towns okay and only 0.6 percent were assigned to burlington and like probably

[08:00] vocal, queer minority that you're seeing represented. That is, wow, that's actually makes the story so interesting because it's like, we're in a bubble, like, [08:08] You're in your internet bubble so cozy and tight into whatever ecosystem you have opted into. [08:16] Totally, totally. Okay, I'm just gonna screen share one of my favorite tweets. It's a screenshot of Nicole Richie. It says hello, are you a lesbian? And it says cold calling a Berkeley, Cambridge or Burlington area code. It's so funny. That is so funny. I'll drop these in in the links. So yeah, that's my that's my story. Love it. I absolutely love it. That is incredible. [08:40] So funny. I was tipped off to this for a few reasons. One Miranda had texted me and said, did you see my Berkeley tweet and it didn't land or did it just like not show up for you? [08:53] Okay. So she's like in my shadow band or was my tweet bad? Exactly. Yeah. She's trying to get to the bottom of that. And that was my first exposure to it. And I remember I'd gotten Berkeley and I was like, or Burlington. And I was like, oh, I don't know what this is about. Basically. Like I wasn't like engaged in enough in my Spotify wrapped. And then I saw an email come through in our inbox, someone being like, who helps work on some of our content being like, I almost did a thing about the Burlington, like gays, but I didn't know if it was too queer for the voice club audience. [09:23] ma'am, 95% of the voice of the audience is bisexual. You have no idea how well that would have played. Oh, that's so funny. Yeah, really hilarious stuff. I can't believe I got such a...

[09:36] I would have imagined I would get such a heterosexual city, but I didn't. My listening habits revealed something. Wow. Thank you. That was really enjoyable. [09:50] Okay. Something that I did not have on my bingo card for the end of 2023 is Elon Musk telling Bob Iger to go f*** himself. I did not have that on the bingo card. [10:06] In retrospect, though, maybe we all should have. I should have anticipated it fully. Totally. I should have. Okay, so what we're talking about today is the Elon Musk interview at the New York Times Dealbook Summit. [10:17] Mm-hmm. I'm sure you have, if you're on Twitter, you've seen this clip. And the more I dug into it, it's a great story. It's a great story. So here's what happened. Elon Musk... [10:27] is at the Dealbook Summit, which is essentially like a New York Times event. And Andrew Ross Sorkin, who's a very famous journalist, is interviewing him. The setup is like two dudes on stage, like really clean, you know, stage setup. Clean girl stage. Clean girl stage. Exactly. [10:45] and he's asking him questions and the part of the interview that goes viral is he asks Yvonne a question about a tweet that he had retweeted and had sort of implied that the tweet that he retweeted was true and I don't know this tweet so this part of the story is I'm not [11:04] a tweet that was anti-Semitic and has caused Elon a lot of problems. And...

[11:12] Mr. Sorkin was basically giving him an opportunity to clarify what had happened with this specific tweet. Andrew Ross Sorkin was like, here's your chance to... [11:22] Walk a back. Yes. He was like, this was perceived as a dog whistle to anti-Semites and an anti-Semitic rhetoric. [11:29] like clarify basically yeah i think also it was my understanding was that it was the catalyst for a lot of big advertisers leaving the platform as well exactly it was this moment this like fork in the road moment for x slash twitter and elon quickly says i did clarify immediately after the media doesn't like to talk about that and it was a mistake because what i essentially did was hand a loaded gun to those who hate me and arguably to those who are anti-semitic and for that i am very [11:59] And then Sorkin goes on to say, yes, in the wake of this criticism, it seems that maybe you should have gone on an apology tour because advertisers are leaving the platform. And Elon says, I hope they stop. And Sorkin goes, you hope? And there's this long pause because it's sort of this awkward moment. Wait, you hope they stop or you hope they do? I hope they stop because he was like, advertisers are leaving the platform. And he was saying, I hope they stop leaving. No, he was saying, I hope they stop advertising. Oh. He was saying, I hope they stop advertising. [12:24] Okay. And Sorkin is confused like you, like, wait, what are you talking about? And he says, don't advertise. And Sorkin's like, wait, what? And he says, if someone is trying to blackmail me with advertising. [12:35] Blackmail me with money. [12:37] Go fuck yourself. [12:38] And it's like so quiet. I mean, it's like a televised thing. It's like you do not say fuck on this part of the show.

[12:47] broadcasting and there's a long pause and it's very awkward and sorkin goes [12:52] But... [12:53] And I'm sure calculating how much he's going to have to spend on fees. Like he's in another world. And Elon goes, go. [13:00] fuck yourself. And he's just like, so like hand waving, so proud of himself. Then the crowd starts to laugh and he goes, is that clear? [13:10] I hope that it is. Hey, Bob, if you're in the audience. [13:13] And it's so bold. And it is such... [13:18] It was inspiring. It was, I'm inspired by it. I was really inspired by it. And that was the clip that went viral. Just that part, basically. And he was like, isn't advertising core to your business? Like he's trying to be like, [13:32] what are you saying right now? This doesn't make any sense. Yeah, this doesn't make any sense. Giving an opportunity to clarify. And Elon's basically like if advertisers boycott, yes, it will kill the company. And we will have it greatly documented that all of these advertisers pulled advertising on X. And so therefore X cannot continue. And basically writing his own story live on TV by basically saying it won't be my fault. It won't be Twitter's fault. It will be all of the advertisers for pulling out. Sorkin and him sort of go back and forth. And Elon keeps saying [14:02] respond. And Sorkin's like, he's trying to like bring it back on course and bring it back to a civilized interview. And that basically doesn't happen. And of course, the clip goes viral, Twitter loses it. And it... [14:14] becomes its own story even on Twitter and has a life of its own. So I'm going to pause there for any questions, any questions or comments or concerns. Yeah. I guess just acknowledgement to Andrew Ross Sorkin trying to, it felt like watching it, he was trying to, it was like kind of like watching a car accident where he,

[14:34] you're seeing someone act so... [14:37] in such an unpredictable way on stage. And Andrew Osorkin is like, suit guy, New York Times journalist, man. Like the Luke Barry's in a journalist. Career, like super professional, super legitimate. And like trying his best to get his hands around like a bucking horse, basically. That's the experience of watching it. Also, my experience of watching it was that Elon Musk was, I want to say erratic. I think the behavior was... [15:03] Felt to me like... [15:06] Definitely bold and definitely [15:08] He's doing all the work to write the narrative of... [15:12] Twitter that he wants to see. But also like... [15:16] really defensive. [15:18] And yeah, and kind of, I don't know, there was an energy that fell insecure to me. Oh, wow. That's so funny. That was not my experience of it at all. The boldness, I felt like the overt boldness, like revealed kind of. [15:33] Something that was far more delicate underneath. Oh, that's funny. The experience I had watching it was he has an agenda. He's not like, oh, I'm so unpredictable and I don't know what I'm going to do. He knows what he's doing. He has an agenda. He's out for that for sure. I wasn't watching it thinking this is an insecure man. And later in the interview, he says, he's like, I don't have a speaking fee. [15:55] He was like, the only reason I'm here is because I'm friends with you to Sorkin. And my experience of it was he didn't want to be there. [16:01] He didn't want to do this. He doesn't like the media. He doesn't like the New York Times. He's only there because his friend called in a favor. And he was like, he called in a favor. I'm going to have a little show here. And I'm going to make sure my agenda...

[16:14] Okay. Is promoted on a public stage. He did an incredible job. I mean, that's giving him a lot of credit. A lot of credit. But him, it was revealing to me that he was like... [16:25] basically on the stage, I don't want to be here. I think he even said that. He said, I'm only here because you're my friend and you asked me to be here. So that informed this moment for me, at least. Does that change your opinion at all or no? Yeah, I can see that. I think also what he's doing, he knows how to rile up the Elon fanboys and he knows that acting like kind of naughty and anti-authoritarian plays directly into the hands of the people who, [16:53] I'm going to say I have the dudes on Twitter who like love him and who worship him. Yeah, that's this is like catnip for them. Totally. So he's like riling up the base, you know, by doing this. I have never been an Elon fan. [17:07] Really ever. I've always thought he was like a petulant child, billionaire guy, but [17:11] I did like this clip. Oh, Justice Freelon. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But I will say there was something about it that... [17:21] I... [17:22] just was inspired and I don't, I can't tell you why, but that's what happened for me. And I think the thing that really got me that I was like, so drawn to was when he was like, [17:38] When he says trying to blackmail me with money, there's a way that he says money that...

[17:44] That is like... [17:46] Me, you think I need your money? And it was like so above it all. Just like being beyond money. It was the way that he said it. That was kind of incredible. Wow. I just want to say, Mark in the sand here, next time we get on a panel, we're going to [18:04] Natasha's going to be like, go fuck yourself. You're going to make some sort of Elon inspired statement. And I'm like, I know, I know why she did that. [18:14] And everybody's like, it only works with you are one of the top three richest people in the world. [18:21] Oh my gosh. Okay. So then Twitter, of course, it has a life of its own. And it was one of those moments where I was just like, I can't believe this app is free. It was incredible. And so one [18:33] tweet that I really loved is this woman who's a reporter explaining what happened, screenshot of Elon and him on the stage. And then a reply to, [18:46] to that thread from this woman with Rudy Giuliani saying, call me. Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. And then that got retweeted by a ton of people saying, call me, call me, call me. Perfect. And then there's a video of him saying, the only reason I'm here is because I'm your friend. And that got retweeted and had a life of its own, which was great. And then one was a screenshot with subtitles where it said, go f*** yourself. And the caption on the tweet is the barista when

[19:16] I really loved that one. And then there's two I just want to play for you really quickly that are an audio visual experience. It's so good. It's a super cut of who wants to be a billionaire and then Elon Musk on stage. And I don't and then it goes on and it's a whole two minute clip. It's great. Lincoln show notes. And I don't know if it's I don't know if it's AI generated or just someone cut it together. OK. So if you're ready, let's go for the video. [19:46] What would you say to him? [19:48] Eat a bag of dicks? Suck on my peepee? Disney Plus is gay? Fuck yourself. [19:54] I'd like to use one of my life. Oh my gosh. That's so good. And then the other one that's really excellent is this one that someone was like, remix is out. Is somebody going to try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself. [20:12] Go fuck yourself. Oh my gosh. So good. So good. The creativity of the internet. It's beautiful. Such a joy to witness. It's beautiful. It is catnip for the fan. For the fan base. [20:24] So that's my Elon Musk story. I guess I'm a sympathizer now to Elon Musk. Which I do want to just say quickly, I have not been following... [20:34] the Elon news around the original tweet. So the like anti-Semitic rhetoric, [20:38] It's much easier to... [20:41] enjoy the story and to take it as like a funny... [20:45] weird, crazy guy...

[20:49] him just saying F you to anyone who's advertising when you don't have the context for like hurtful things and a dog whistle. Like I don't have that context. So just want to put that on record here amongst friends. And I think on record also, [21:03] You're not pro-e- I mean, I don't know. Maybe you are pro-e- I don't think I am. I don't know. Who knows? I'm confused. Great. It's not that serious. When you're first getting started with crypto, it can be scary. Am I doing this right? Is this just like my bank or trading app? How is it new and different? Well, that's why we love Kraken. They have a 24-7, 365 customer support team that's there to hold your hand all along the way. This isn't a 9-to-5 Monday to Friday bank. This is crypto. It's all the time. Anyone's welcome. Open door policy. Come one, come all. [21:33] at kraken.com backslash boys club not investment advice crypto trading involves risk of loss cryptocurrency services are provided to us and u.s territory customers by payward ventures incorporated pvi dba kraken [21:47] So my last story hits very close to home. Oh my gosh, I'm nervous. Yeah. So it's tough. It's tough for me. Here's the headline. [21:58] hot and trending Demi Method makeup. [22:01] Revealed to be an MLM. [22:03] what i know i know you were almost you were almost in the mlm you were selling me so hard the last few days you're selling me and our entire glam squad on this i know i feel so bad

[22:21] Okay, so basically some background. Incredible job from this team. Incredible job. Gorilla. Okay, so background for the listener. Over the past couple weeks, I have been obsessed with this team. [22:34] thing that's happening on tiktok which is a makeup method called the demi method and this is my favorite thing up until today this has been my favorite thing to talk about if you've talked to me in the past two weeks has been the demi method every chance i get gay lore with the demi method every chance every chance i get i'm talking about the demi method so i'll talk first about the demi method in its purest form it's it's a makeup philosophy [23:01] Basically, it's a whole new way of thinking about doing your makeup, which replaces this idea of all over foundation, where you're basically bringing one shade, doing one shade all over your face and then adding in. [23:15] concealer, it rejects the notion of all over foundation [23:20] And [23:20] It instead has this like low or no makeup look that relies on really detailed pixel level color correcting with like a tiny, teeny, teeny, teeny, tiny brush. And it is very based in color theory and color correcting and color matching. I'm absolutely obsessed with the idea that you are then going to sell everybody at the end of this on your MLO. No, I'm not. I'm not because I have some receipts that are pretty damning. [23:50] saw the Demi method and like the videos around it. The end result is this beautiful, no makeup look, like minimalist makeup look that it's color correcting and it's also facial balancing. And so you see these girls, these women and men too, that look incredible. And the amount of makeup they're using is minuscule. It's really, really small. And it also brings out some

[24:13] I think interesting features and people like one example of how it comes to life is, okay, you have your under eye discoloration. And with the normal approach to makeup, you would put like lighten it with concealer and you put concealer all over under your eye and you basically lighten up the whole under eye area. And the Demi method is like, no, that's too much product. Like it separates it, it separates, it ages you. It's not a natural look, what you do instead, like basically [24:43] So it actually creates a look that's like, I think really interesting where it's like you have kind of dark spots and I don't know, it's just, it's more dynamic. And I think really beautiful. Yeah. So that's the Demi method. And I think one of the things that I was really struck by when I first started watching it was like, [24:58] Oh, in 50 years, people are going to be doing their makeup in totally different ways. And it just so happens that we've like come up in an age where like the foundation thing and like the look is the way it is. But the makeup is and makeup techniques is like constantly evolving. And like, who knows what they're gonna be doing in 50 years. And when I first saw the Demi method, I was like, Oh, they're gonna be doing this. [25:18] Because it's so much less makeup and it's such a more natural look. Okay. So that's the time for you. [25:23] Four minutes. Four minutes of the time you met. [25:27] she's such a believer you guys it's from the heart it's from the heart it really is from the heart and like i honestly i i found it really hard to get people on board with the demi method stuff like i just only this week i just don't believe it right i think that those people are everyone you've showed me

[25:43] are just beautiful women. [25:46] Like, and you're like, look how great she looks. And I'm like, yeah, she's just beautiful. Like, she's just a beautiful woman on TikTok with the ring light. Like, anyway, tell me, tell me. Okay, so then I get a video into my feed, which is going to be absolutely devastating for them. But it's basically like this makeup artist guy who's like, the Demi method is an MLM. [26:05] and so i start to look into it and basically what happens in order for you to achieve the demi method look you have to have a very comprehensive makeup palette like part of it is there's yellows there's greens there's purples there's like you're doing it's color theory color correcting so you have to like find the opposite shade it's very intricate and you have this is also why i haven't been sold on it is because every time you showed me i'm like i don't see these colors they're like you [26:35] see the yellow. Like, I don't know where that is. It's very advanced. And so anyway, you need like a very advanced palette. And the, the DemiColor palette is made by this company called Saint. And Saint is an MLM. Okay. It used to be called this thing called mascara, but then there was a lawsuit and it rebranded after it was sued to the brand, the great rebring to this thing called Saint. So I feel like we could do probably a whole podcast on MLMs, but basically it's pay to play. [27:05] pay a fee to be a saint makeup artist, you get paid from your sales, but more importantly, you get paid from the sales of your recruits and you're getting paid to recruit people in. So you're like selling products. Yes. Great. But you're also selling in other saint makeup artists and you're getting paid for every new artist that you bring in. And then you're getting

[27:27] a commission on their sale, which is called your downline. So it's a classic MLM. I also saw something where it was like 90% of their sellers were [27:37] have sell less than a thousand dollars annual like oh man very predatory they don't have the inventory thing as much but okay it's it's an mlm it's a classic mlm it's so extractive did mlms are banned on tiktok which is like if you're gonna get banned on tiktok you gotta be that makes me so bullish on tiktok i know i love that tiktok's like we don't want that bullshit here of all the things of all the things we will take 13 year olds dancing provocatively all day long [28:07] We draw the line at MLMs. And so the final nail in the coffin to me, I was like, I was like, oh, man, shine. OK, but like but maybe the Demi method like lives on its own. And yes, you can buy that palette if you want to. But there's other palettes I'm sure that you could buy. But then I found out that the main woman who is touting the Demi method, who is the woman that I've been sharing all the videos with you, the beautiful woman, that woman. Her name is Kara Brooke and she is at the helm of Saint. [28:37] it like no she founded the company founded it yes oh and so in her videos you don't hear talking about saint at all but of course not that's classic mlm class you don't mention the brand i know so it's so extractive radicalized [28:52] I know. We were talking about this today, how borderline you are to be radicalized to anything. And it happened. I know. And of all the things, a makeup MLM was for. I am obsessed with the idea that we had some glam squad people at my apartment. I am screaming at the idea that they were like, oh, shit, these women are just trying to get us to their MLM because we kept talking about this.

[29:14] Debbie Method. Them being like, we have to get out of here. Cut and run. I'm like, you can buy this package right now. [29:26] I'm shocked. I know. I'm still processing. How did you find out? That video came up. Like I would have never known unless that the whistleblower video came up into my feed. Yeah. Was there quite a bit of activity on that? Like, was he getting engaged? Yes. And honestly, then I went into a [29:44] talking about saint mlm stuff and there's the people who are doing the expose content about housing is an mlm and then like fully with receipts like these girls are pulling up spreadsheets and stuff like that like they're getting really deep okay and then there you go into their comments and there's a lot of people depending and so right anyway it's just a dark kind of world but that's that wow i almost got recruited into an mlm [30:09] Oh, God. I'm glad you came to the light. I'm really glad. Well, what a great episode to online from Elon Musk to... [30:22] makeup, MLMs. It was a fun time. If you like this podcast, please rate it wherever you listen to your podcast. Every individual little rate makes a really big difference. So it's very easy. You just go to your, say Spotify app and click five stars, or I don't know if you don't want to rate five stars, that's okay too. Just five. Let's encourage the five. But it makes a big difference. So if you could take 30 seconds to do that now, that'd be great. And that is that.

[30:50] That is that.