South Korea & Online Anti-Natalism: The B-Side (PREVIEW)

Josh Boerman (0:00)

There's no law that says that you can't hang out with your friends on a podcast.

June Sternbach (0:04)

No, it's sort of what a podcast is ultimately an excuse for. You just put a little bit more research and effort into that friendship if you do a podcast, if you have one of those podcast friendships. I was trying to come up with a really smooth combination, like a pod friend.

A friend, yes.

Josh Boerman (0:26)

This just reminds me that I was looking the other day at, there was this thread on Reddit that was like, what are the things that you can't stand on a podcast? And so many people have things that they can't stand on a podcast and many of them are like indirect contradiction with each other.

Some people are like, I can't stand when people don't talk about anything other than the subject matter and don't give us any sense of who they are. And then on the other side, you've got people who are like, I can't stand when they talk about their lives. Shut the fuck up, I don't want to hear about you, I am only here for the content.

June Sternbach (1:05)

Yeah, I mean, there's layers to the type of podcasts that people listen to. Personally, I will never understand, just because it's never really been for me, the type of podcast listener that will watch video podcasts, but specifically video podcasts for just like random, seemingly random people who just talk about like the day they had with two other random friends.

Josh Boerman (1:26)

I don't get that either.

June Sternbach (1:27)

I don't, I genuinely do not understand it, because it's like, first of all, who are you? Like, who are they? Why am I supposed to care about like this weird grocery store interaction you had? And that's like with the entire podcast. It is everyone just talking about their grocery store experiences.

Josh Boerman (1:43)

I mean, in some cases, it will be that the people who are running those sorts of podcasts have some sort of like fame or clout. Like more often than not, there'll be some sort of like influencer or something along those lines. But yeah, that's never been for me either, because it's like, if I wanted to listen in on the world's most boring conversation, I could just go to any bar and start listening to the people, just like eavesdropping on the people next to me.

June Sternbach (2:11)

And if you're bold enough, you could join that conversation. And make a new friend who's maybe, you know, maybe you're judging a little harshly. Maybe they're a very fascinating person.

Josh Boerman (2:20)

And they were just talking about the conversations they're having. But look, I can talk about what happened in the grocery line with the best of them, you know, just try and fucking stop me.

June Sternbach (2:31)

Yeah, look, yeah, I don't know. You know, video podcasts, they have their place. I get it. But some of them, I've seen some of them. I'm just like, what are we? What are we doing here?

What are the, you know, I shouldn't be so critical of our contemporaries, I really shouldn't be harping.

Josh Boerman (2:47)

You don't have to, but I will.

June Sternbach (2:51)

I've tried to become nicer.

Josh Boerman (2:53)

Oh.

June Sternbach (2:54)

I've been mean in the past. I've been mean and I don't want to be mean. I like being nice.

Josh Boerman (2:58)

I think, all right, and this is one maybe-

June Sternbach (3:02)

Clarification, I like being mean still to people who deserve it. Yeah, but if they're just like sort of annoying or like maybe posted cringe once, it's like, okay, I don't, who cares, man? I've posted a thousand cringe things, it's fine.

Josh Boerman (3:16)

I also think there's a big difference between being mean and being critical. Sometimes those things do like come together, but I don't know. This is probably the kind of conversation that some listeners think is like, oh, this is interesting and I have thoughts about this. And other listeners are like, hey, how about you get to the fucking content? It's the B-side, folks.

June Sternbach (3:37)

It's the B-side. Let us know in the comments below. The comments will be a poll on if that is the sort of conversation you are interested in or not.

And we'll fine tune using AI technology the amount of time dedicated to talking about those subjects.

Josh Boerman (3:56)

But we got some feedback off of this most recent episode that we did about South Korea. And I've also got an update for our babies about the current status of Slutcon.