Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)

Before we go on (brief! I promise!) hiatus and move to a seasonal format, Jamie takes a look at your submitted stories about being the main character -- from viral pets to grieving online to reckoning with your relationship to a changing internet, we explore the spectrum of what it means to be too online. Bonus: one of Jamie's favorite memes of all time calls in! Thank you for making the first year of Sixteenth Minute so special, see you soon <3 Buy Raw Dog here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250847751/rawdog/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all know that Haliey "Hawk Tuah" Welch was the face of a memecoin crypto scandal, and most know that the SEC excused it wholesale. What we don't fully know is why it was so easy to get away with it -- in our grand Hawk Tuah finale, Jamie speaks with former SEC enforcement attorney John Reed Stark about how the state of cryptocurrency can do more than sink a fledgling influencer's career, it can tank a whole economy.  Follow John Reed Stark's work here: https://www.johnreedstark.com/ Come see Jamie on tour for Raw Dog starting next week! https://us.macmillan.com/tours/jamie-loftus-raw-dog/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaf-I3pdBDpG51TvRPCIfkS08847rolEcVNOqDZCUX8Hq9t9sZlX9idj_DI9NQ_aem_niy1HGU3U4vldbC-KP7JsA BEFORE MAY 9TH, send a voice memo of your experience being the main character to: smalliceresurfacer@gmail.com for your chance to be on an upcoming episode of SIxteenth Minute!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let’s catch up with Haliey ‘Hawk Tuah’ Welch since the fallout of the crypto scam that undercut her sixteenth minute. While most didn’t stick around to see what happened, a lot about the crypto world has empowered Team Tuah to keep going — getting one over on the government, a second botched pump and dump scheme, and a suspiciously timed podcast relaunch. To what end? We’ve got some ideas. See Jamie on tour for RAW DOG! https://us.macmillan.com/tours/jamie-loftus-raw-dog/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaf-I3pdBDpG51TvRPCIfkS08847rolEcVNOqDZCUX8Hq9t9sZlX9idj_DI9NQ_aem_niy1HGU3U4vldbC-KP7JsA Watch Coffeezilla’s breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiZVDY5jNYM&t=696sSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In part two of our Tay Zonday series, Adam Bahner gets into his political awakening, and how it affected his relationship to his family, his creative work, and himself. Wanna get radicalized? Wanna get radicalized AGAIN? This is the episode for you. Follow Tay Zonday here: https://www.instagram.com/tayzonday/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After eight long years of research, Dr. Ally Louks posted to Twitter about completing her Ph. D : "Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose." The Elon-fueled right-wing internet freaked out. In an exclusive interview, Jamie speaks with Dr. Louks about the experience of reclaiming the narrative around a nasty online backlash to better educate anti-intellectuals on the sense we ignore the most.  Follow Dr. Ally here: https://x.com/DrAllyLouks Read Dr. Ally's original thread here: https://x.com/DrAllyLouks/status/1861872149373297078?lang=en vote for "we the unhoused" for a webby before april 17th!: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/shows/public-service-activismSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Picture this: it's 2020, you're clinging to sanity, and a frozen steak your mom used to eat after school called SteakUmm is now tweeting in the hopes of turning you into a socialist. But... what? Can one be radicalized by hot dog grade meat? Is what's being sold here an idea or microwaveable meat slop? In our penultimate installment of the Sentient Brands series, Jamie gets into the weeds with the mind behind the SteakUmm account, writer and social media director Nathan Allebach. Spoiler alert: we do, indeed, live in a society. Follow Nathan here: https://beacons.ai/nathanallebach?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaaw8UJ_ctC-xxP2HrkYDPA5-9p2LBtn_w_NQsXsZhvZeBBYwiEzyZ6LooY_aem_Dm_8G9fFWhqyK0YAyD1JzQ Read Nathan's history of sentient brands: https://www.vulture.com/2019/06/brand-twitter-jokes-history.html Follow Yedoye Travis: https://www.instagram.com/yedoye_/?hl=enSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In part one of our ‘Sentient Brands on Social Media’ series, Jamie speaks with Serenity Discko, the original media writer behind the teenage edgelord Denny’s Tumblr account. But worry not, we go DEEP — Jamie sets the stage by tracing back our history of parasocial relationships with brands all the way back to World War I. Buckle in, the brands are getting angry, the brands are getting horny, and the brands want to be your best friend. Follow Serenity’s work here: Serenity Discko Watch The Century of the Self by Adam Curtis: https://youtu.be/eJ3RzGoQC4s?si=_eHsM0hadnUQA3Cr Read The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu:  https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-attention-merchants-the-epic-scramble-to-get-inside-our-heads-tim-wu/8632123See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jamie continues her conversation with Liam Kyle Sullivan, AKA Kelly of "Shoes" fame, Mrs. Cunningham of "Muffins" fame, and an actor and comedian workshopping a show about what it all means. Bonus: Jamie's cousin Chloe stops by to explain why kids from New England had no idea Mrs. Cunningham was "doing an accent." Come to The Bechdel Cast's Oscars Spectacular Celebration this Sunday: https://www.dynastytypewriter.com/calendar-squad-up See Liam's show in Los Angeles this Thursday: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-liam-kyle-sullivan-show-work-in-progress-tickets-1248665595409?aff=oddtdtcreator Follow Liam: https://www.liamkylesullivan.com/ https://www.instagram.com/liamksullivan/?hl=enSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Zoë Roth was four years old, her dad snapped a photo of her in front of a neighborhood home being burned with its owners permission to clear the land -- and the rest is internet history. This week, Jamie goes in depth with Zoë twenty years later about becoming a meme just as she started to form memories, how she's chosen to interact (or not interact) with it over the years, and why she chose to forge her own path. Also, a deep dive into meme managers, and why there are so many dead cats with representation. Get tickets to the Bechdel Cast show at Dynasty Typewriter here: https://www.dynastytypewriter.com/calendar-squad-upSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In honor of the ten year anniversary of the left shark moment at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show in 2015, a very special rerun! Sixteenth Minute exclusive! We’ve got the first in depth interview with Bryan Gaw, aka the Left Shark himself.  This week, Jamie revisits the 2015 Super Bowl saga that was Left Shark — the costumed cartilaginous fish that went rogue in 2015 beside Katy Perry during a chorus of ‘Teenage Dream,’ capturing the world’s heart. The person inside is just as lovable, and Jamie takes the bus to West Hollywood to meet dancer-turned-celebrity-stylist Bryan Gaw to revisit one of the internet’s few wholesome moments.  Plus… ELLLLLVIS PRESTOOOO Follow Bryan Gaw here: https://bryangaw.com/ And here: https://www.instagram.com/bryangaw Original Air Date: 9.3.24See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Between June and December 2024, Haliey Welch completed one of the most astounding main character runs of all time. Beginning as someone with no social media, catapulted to fame all but against her will after talking to on-the-street YouTubers targeting drunk women, the end of the year saw Haliey "Hawk Tuah" Welch acting as the face of exploitative memecoin scandal. In our final part of the Hawk Tuah series, we look into the history of crypto, a play by play of the Hawk Coin scandal, and what it means when you scam before you can get scammed. Follow Molly White's work here: https://www.mollywhite.net/linktree/ Watch Dan Olson's "Line Goes Up" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g Watch Coffeezilla's "exposing the hawk tuah scam" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUHq8AWR1Rg  List of Displaced Black Families in Altadena: https://lasentinel.net/displaced-black-families-gofund-me-directory.htmlSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this Hawk Tuah bonus episode, Jamie connects the man on the street TikTok content that made Haliey Welch famous to its media ancestor — the Girls Gone Wild craze of the 2000s. We talk with former GGW street team member and incredible podcaster Courtney Kocak to learn more about how exploiting drunk women for men’s profit became a million dollar industry.  Follow Courtney’s work @courtneykocak and listen to Private Parts Unknown here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-parts-unknown-sex-love-around-the-world/id1154304419 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wildfires have devastated Southern California in the past week, while mainstream media has remained fairly fixated on the wealthier communities and celebrities affected. Meanwhile, the majority of lives lost were in the middle class neighborhood of Altadena, and mutual aid efforts have blossomed across the city to address those affected. This week, Jamie reaches out to writers and organizers in Los Angeles to take a closer look at who will be at the forefront of this ongoing crisis. Theo Henderson of We the Unhoused speaks to how the unhoused and newly displaced have to navigate city hostility; independent reporter Alissa Walker explores how the fires will continually affect families and the risk of holding the Olympics in LA; Sara Reyes, Maebe A. Girl, and Rachel Sanoff of SELAH talk mutual aid in a time of crisis; and Mychal Threets tells Jamie about the importance of libraries and community spaces in the wake of tragedy. Displaced Black Families Mutual Aid: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pK5omSsD4KGhjEHCVgcVw-rd4FZP9haoijEx1mSAm5c/htmlview  Follow Theo Henderson and We the Unhoused here: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-we-the-unhoused-66071889/ https://x.com/TheoHen95302259  Follow Alissa Walker and Torched here:https://www.torched.la/ https://bsky.app/profile/awalkerinla.bsky.social  Follow SELAH here:https://www.selahnhc.org/volunteer https://www.instagram.com/selahnhc/?hl=en  Follow Mychal here: https://www.instagram.com/mychal3ts/?hl=en Tickets to The Bechdel Cast in San Francisco: https://sfsketchfest2025.sched.com/event/1rbOs Buy A Paradise Built in Hell: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-paradise-built-in-hell-the-extraordinary-communities-that-arise-in-disaster-rebecca-solnit/11725474?gad_source=1See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.