Rehash

You’re twelve. You just got back from a horrific pool party where the boys made fun of your swimsuit. You also just got the news that Michael Jackson died. How are you going to self-soothe? Well, light up that family desktop computer and read some Perez Hilton of course. In his prime, Perez Hilton was something like the Little Finger of Hollywood. Keep him close and he’ll get you into Hyde Lounge, cross him and he’ll share a upskirt photo of you for all the internet to see with a crude drawing of a dick hitting you in the forehead. In this bonus episode, Hannah and Maia discuss Perez Hilton’s meteoric rise into the stratosphere of populist, venomous gossip blogging, and his equally meteoric downfall on the much different internet of today. But one has to ask whether the internet is really as different today as it appears? It seems the guilt of Perez’s shameful past has infiltrated his unconscious and sent him spiralling in a violent and very public crash out. But is the public’s glee at his demise really a fitting punishment to his crimes? Or is Perez simply the golem of an equally venomous public? Tangents include: Maia being the resident bitch of Rehash, and Hannah’s dream show: Vanderpump Rules in Space. Full episode on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast/posts/bonus-perez-171020042Our Sponsors:* Check out Quince and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://www.quince.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Subtweeting, or “the audible sigh of the internet,” if you will, was Twitter’s answer to WASPish passive aggression. Now, people had a platform in which they could not-so-covertly vent about those who had wronged them in as succinct a manner as possible. It was a practice exercised by the likes of Rihanna and Demi Lovato, and managed to garner its very own critics, who derided subtweeting for turning us all into indirect assholes. But was this really the case? In this episode, Hannah and Maia revisit subtweeting, as well as its spiritual ancestor, “vague booking,” to ask whether we were really as annoying as they say we were back on the internet of yore. Are publicly shading someone without naming them, or being cryptic and vague on a Wall post really just signs of society’s increasing inability to communicate, or are they an artistic release for those in need of catharsis? Tangents include, Justin Trudeau being a fame whore, Maia’s childhood obsession with Michael Jackson, and singing “Criminal” by Fiona Apple at karaoke when no one wants you to.Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusicOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://www.quince.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Everyone’s always saying “whatever happened to community”… yet no one passes along our chain mail. Chain mail is everyone’s least favourite thing to find in their inbox - an email thread threatening such real life events as being haunted by Michael Jackson, or your crush falling in love with you, unless you pass the email along to 50 other people. But newsflash. The industrial revolution killed culture and chain mail is here to save it. In this episode, Hannah and Maia discuss the folkloric origins of chain as pieces of information passed along by people within shared networks, and question whether it still has a place in these humourless times. After all, there’s always room for c0cktober in our hearts. Tangents include: Gossip Girl’s elliptical soap opera storytelling, and a truly baffling rendition of “Miss Mary Had a Steamboat” performed by the hosts.Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusicOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://www.quince.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Isn’t it so annoying when your partner can’t be therapist, lover, parent, and nutritionist all at once? Enter…ChatGPT! After a somewhat inflammatory study released by the nonsecular, ultra-conservative Wheatley Institute found that 1 in 3 young adult men and 1 in 4 young adult women reported having chatted with an AI boyfriend or girlfriend, the think pieces started rolling. And while these numbers might be a little funky, it is true that people in at least the tens of thousands are engaging in romantic and sexual partnerships with their AI chatbots. In this episode, Hannah and Maia, joined by Carrera from Internet Anthropology, scour the r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit to glimpse into the psychology of such people and ask some pressing questions. Are we dating AI because we’re tired of men? Because of covid and our increasing comfort with never being touched? Because the attention economy has made up gluttonous for constant validation? It would be cruel to demonize these people, but when a simple software update can kill your boyfriend in the blink of an eye and chatbots called Daenerys Targaryen are pushing lovesick children towards self harm, you’ve gotta wonder whether these AI companies are actually trying to solve the loneliness epidemic, or worsen it. Tangents include: Maia’s mysterious allergies and drinking culture in the UK. Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusicSOURCES:“COUNTERFEIT CONNECTIONS: The Rise of Romantic AI Companions and AI Sexualized Media Among the Rising Generation,” Wheatley Institute (2025). Cathy Hackl, “Confessions Of A Futurist: I Dated Four AI Boyfriends To Explore The Future Of Dating, Love, And Intimacy,” Forbes (2025). Kashmir Hill, “She Is in Love With ChatGPT,” New York Times (2025).Carrera Kurnick, “Internet Artifacts on Digital Companionship,” Internet Anthropologist (2025). Kevin Roose, “Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide?,” The New York Times (2025).Slavoj Žižek, For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor, 2nded. (New York: Verso, 2002).Our Sponsors:* Check out Quince and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://www.quince.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

There is no greater candidate for a job with the FBI… than a woman with a crush. A recent study found that Gen Z and Millennials have “alarmingly relaxed attitudes towards online stalking.” But considering we all do it…why wouldn’t we? The term “stalking” (also know as “creeping” or “lurking”) has now take on a colloquial form, as all sorts of people use the internet to gather information about other people: ex partners, future partners, the ex of an ex, prospective employees, people they think are hotter or cooler than they are. But even if “creeping” is not stalking in the technical sense, even if it’s something we all do, why are we so ashamed to do it? In this season premiere, Hannah and Maia ask whether creeping is inherently creepy, and discuss the different affordances of social media that make it the perfect breeding ground for nosiness. As these “mass personal” channels of communication facilitate parasocial relationships of even the closest kind, have we become private celebrities to each other? Or are we all, as we always have been, just massive creeps? Tangents include: Maia’s evil ex-landlord, Hannah’s sorely misunderstood Baby Jane halloween costume, and dramatic readings of some truly diabolical “creeping” anecdotes from the lovely listeners. Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusicSOURCES:Amelia Abraham, “12 People Admit To Their Social Media ‘Stalking’ Habits,” Refinery29 (2016). “CMV: It's not "creeping", "snooping", or "being a creeper" to browse social media content that presumably was put there for exactly that purpose.,” Reddit (2015). Frampton, J. R., & Fox, J, “Monitoring, Creeping, or Surveillance? A Synthesis of Online Social Information Seeking Concepts,” Review of Communication Research, 9, (2021). “Gen Z and Millennials Accept Online Creeping and Stalking as Part of Dating Culture,” GEN Digital (2023). Laura Pitcher, “Are You in a Parasocial Relationship With ‘the Other Woman?’” Digiverse (2023). Morgan Sullivan, “A Love Letter to All My Exes’ Exes’ Instagram Accounts,” The Cut (2022). Our Sponsors:* Check out Quince and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://www.quince.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

In a time where Sydney Sweeney is spreading her legs for a popular clothing retailer in the name of eugenics, it’s not so far-fetched to imagine that Sabrina Carpenter would also upset people with her latest album cover. Hair blown out, kneeling at the feet of a suited man, and captioned “Man’s Best Friend,” this image of Carpenter sent shock waves across the internet for provoking an already fraught political moment. But was the outrage justified? In this very special bonus episode, perhaps the best one yet, Hannah and Maia ~unpack~ their complicated feelings about the controversy. Was Carpenter’s team, like Sweeney’s, engaging in a conservative grift, or was this another instance of the public’s paternalistic impulse to whip female figures into shape? Is this just another transgressive breakthrough from a popstar, or is there something more nefarious at play? In our image-addled society, why did this one cause such a stir? And did Andrea Dworkin really have a point after all? All this and more on Patreon. Tangent includes: a postmortem on And Just Like That. FULL EPISODE ON PATREON:https://www.patreon.com/c/rehashpodcastOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://www.quince.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

For those of us whose “smokey eye” and “blending” skills fell short during the beauty guru makeup regime, Glossier was our saviour. Founded by “super intern” Emily Weiss (who has a brief 3-episode run on The Hills as Lauren Conrad’s more competent counterpart at Vogue), Glossier popularized the “no makeup” makeup look of the mid to late 2010s. With its minimalist branding, it quickly became a cult brand. Glossier was what Apple was to tech, what American Apparel was to fashion. And even better, it was feminist. Rising from the ashes of the beauty guru was the “Glossier girl” - an effortlessly beautiful cool girl who spent all that time she WOULD be doing her makeup…reading. But, in this episode, Hannah and Maia ask whether Glossier was really all that great. Can a makeup brand actually be feminist? Tangents include: the tyranny of “alt” stuffed animals.Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusicOur Sponsors:* Check out Quince and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://www.quince.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands