INFLUENCE

Here on 2 GIRLS 1 PODCAST, we typically cover online communities that make a positive impact on the internet through their creativity or inclusivity. But not all digital watercoolers are a force for good.The_Donald is a now-banned subreddit that was home to some of the former president's most passionate supporters. That, in itself, is barely interesting.What boggles the mind is how this community rocketed disinformation into mainstream discourse, helped organize the January 6 insurrection, and tore gaping vulnerabilities into the U.S. administration.This week, Alli and Jen talk with Alex Thomas, a journalist who has studied The_Donald for years (in its various incarnations) and written extensively about the unprecedented ways the president's own staff leveraged this fringe group to legitimize propaganda and sow the seeds of insurrection — moves which inadvertently left the administration vulnerable to Russian and Iranian trolls.Read Thomas's outstanding reporting as part of The Daily Dot's Trump Disinformation Project: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/dan-scavino-reddit-donald-trump-disinformation/Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've got some great new episodes in the pipeline for you, but while we wait, here's an encore of one of our favorites, originally published on December 8, 2019.-Original Notes-The Instagram account turned multi-million dollar media company @FuckJerry is notorious for stealing funny tweets, memes, and other content from creators, and posting them — without credit or compensation — to their own social accounts. Fuck Jerry's following has exploded in recent years (14.5 million Instagram followers at the time of publication), but so has the backlash. The #FuckFuckJerry movement became an anti-piracy rallying cry across the Internet. Two comedians (Davram Stiefler and Jason Selvig) known as The Good Liars, have taken the movement a step further by creating @MugJerry, an Instagram account that steals back the stolen content from Fuck Jerry, then contacts the original creators to pay them for their tweet, joke, or photo.Alli and Jen chat with The Good Liars about their mission of social media justice, the time they walked into Fuck Jerry's NYC offices and stole an actual mug, and the other ways they've created social commentary through comedy.Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since 1999, the website Something Awful has been an Internet culture tastemaker, and this closed community is still going strong two decades later — a rarity for online platforms. Many modern memes and web culture references have their roots on Something Awful's humor forums.For a one time fee of $10, you get full access to the site's vibrant discussion and community. That nominal barrier-to-entry is the secret to keeping the discourse quality high and shitpost ratios low, according to the site's current owner, who goes by the pseudonym Jeffrey of Yospos.Paying for high-quality content and meaningful online community has recently come back into fashion amid the chaos of free platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which make money at incredible scale by selling user data to advertisers. It begs the question: Did we build the Internet wrong?Alli and Jen talk with Jeffrey about the early days of Something Awful, a place where you're "free to be an Internet weirdo." We also learn the origins of "Let's Play" video game culture, and ways the SA community fought hate speech long before most platforms took it seriously.Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to save money, help your neighbors, and create less waste all at the same time? The Internet can help. Specifically, the "Buy Nothing" communities that have sprouted up in thousands of cities and towns around the world. Usually, they operate within Facebook groups, where people post things they want to get rid of, and neighbors can claim them.Alli and Jen speak with Marina Milosevic, the admin of the Santa Monica, CA Buy Nothing group, about the origins of the movement, managing a community that occasionally gets too large, the weirdest stuff people give away, and why it's easier than you think to stop buying things from Amazon.Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're concerned that LOLspeak and text messages are ruining language, fear not, grammar nerds! This week, Alli and Jen speak with linguist, author, and fellow podcaster Gretchen McCulloch, who says we are living in a special time for informal written language.McCulloch explains why the Internet is changing language and culture in unprecedented ways, how regular people solved the 500-year-long quest for written sarcasm, and why post cards from George Harrison look like your dad's text messages.Follow Gretchen: https://twitter.com/GretchenAMcCRead her book, "Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language" https://www.amazon.com/Because-Internet-Understanding-Rules-Language-ebook/dp/B076GNS3J4Listen to the Lingthusiasm podcast: https://lingthusiasm.com/Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It won't shock most psychologists (armchair or professional) that figures of authority and oppression in early childhood can lead to kinks in adulthood. Look no further than blasphemy porn to bear out that theory.This week, Alli and Jen talk with Sabrina Bea, a blasphemy fetish cam model who specializes in tearing up bibles and dressing as nuns. Sabrina tells us why her clientele are searching for this highly specific content, and why they'll pay big bucks for it. Also, the most common (and strangest) requests she gets online.Follow Sabrina and all her Blasphemous content here: https://twitter.com/sabrinaxmfcSupport 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The media tends to present 2 kinds of COVID-19 patients: Those who make a full recovery, and those who die.But there's a massive group of people who suffer long term symptoms like months-long fevers, hair loss, and respiratory issues. And when they asked their doctors what was wrong, they got no answers.So these COVID "Long Haulers" have turned to Facebook groups to share their experiences, get advice, and pool the wisdom that medicine is only beginning to understand.Alli and Jen talk with Michele, the admin of a COVID-19 Long Haulers Facebook group, about the massive community that's grown around the long term symptoms of the pandemic.She shares important stories that are often overlooked, the best ways to support and protect others, and the medical breakthroughs that have come out of this online community.COVID-19 Long Haulers Awareness and Education Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/covidrecoverystories/Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our interview about 4chan culture elicited the most listener response in the shortest period of time, so we want to share a lot of it.Alli, Jen and Matt discuss the 2G1P approach to primary source interviews, bias, and where we failed in covering this very complicated platform.Happy New Year from 2G1P! See you in 2021.Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you'd like the brighten the day of an Internet stranger, look no further than Reddit Gifts, the yearly online celebration where more than 100,000 Secret Santas swap gifts around the world. Alli and Jen talk with Janet, a Redditor who has swapped 19 gifts with strangers over the course of her secret Santa sleuthing. Janet shares the excitement of shopping for (and online stalking!) strangers, the fun of receiving great gifts, some life-changing stories from the community, and what happens when you get matched with Bill Gates or Best Buy as your Secret Santa.You can participate in Reddit Gifts all-year round:https://www.reddit.com/r/secretsanta/https://www.redditgifts.com/exchanges/Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been a busy week, so we're sharing one of our favorites to get you in the holiday spirit. We'll be back next week with more fun!-Originally Published December 22, 2019-Portraying Santa Claus in the modern era takes a village. What's the best way to whiten your eyebrows? Growing a beard, or applying one? How jolly is too jolly?That's where ClausNet comes in. It's a social network, online forum, marketplace, and community where Santa performers can trade tips, tell stories, and learn the best ways to communicate with excited kids.Michael Rielly has been portraying Santa Claus since he was 12 years old, and founded ClausNet in 2007 after identifying a strong need for online Santa resources and camaraderie. Rielly shares his personal tales of playing Santa, the evolution of ClausNet, and we're visited by a VERY special additional guest...Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices