Vibes Only
The polls are broken, the stakes are unprecedented, and vibes drive the future of American politics.
Every Thursday, political strategist Brian Derrick (founder of Oath) and new media strategist Glennis Meagher (co-founder of Generator Collective) break down the biggest stories in American politics, elections, and culture.
This isn't your standard cable news commentary. Get an insider's look at the US political machine, current news of the week, and the digital strategy shaping our world - delivered with the honesty, insight, and humor of two people who've actually worked in the trenches of US politics.
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Vibes Only
Mrs. Frazzled on Taking Down Eric Swalwell & Elon Musk Hits $1 Trillion
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Elon Musk just crossed into trillionaire territory, Donald Trump hosted a chaotic corruption scheme disguised as a UFC match on the White House lawn, and a powerhouse coalition of independent creators including our guest this week - Arielle Fodor (Mrs. Frazzled of TikTok fame) just took down a sitting politician.
This week on Vibes Only, Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher chat from across the pond to break down the sheer scale of infinite wealth, a pointless war that left us $100 Billion poorer, and the massive Supreme Court decisions dropping by the end of this month.
Then, we are joined by the incredible Arielle Fodor (AKA @MrsFrazzled) to pull back the curtain on how she, Cheyenne Hunt at Reckoning Action, and Meg Klink at Pretty Informed Girls bypassed traditional newsrooms to expose the open secret of former Congressman Eric Swalwell. From taking out umbrella insurance policies to handle the legal heat, to testing the waters on Threads, Arielle shares what accountability looks like in the age of independent media.
Tell your friends - Vibes Only is a weekly political podcast hosted by Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher, two political operatives turned creators breaking down the news of the week in politics, elections, and culture.
New episodes every Thursday morning and a BONUS EPISODE (our full interview with Arielle Fodor aka Mrs. Frazzled) DROPPING TOMORROW!
EPISODE LINKS
Arielle Fodor aka Mrs. Frazzled on TikTok
Cheyenne Hunt's Org "Reckoning Action"
Hey everyone, Brian calling in from London.
GLENNIS:And Glennis calling in from Sweden. This week on the pod, we talk about the Knicks in Five, and we look at the fallout from the disgusting, horrific, vile UFC match on the White House lawn.
BRIAN:We're also breaking down Elon Musk reaching trillionaire status, Trump's lack of doing anything other than wasting both money and lives in Iran, and a rapid fire look at the top SCOTUS cases that we're still expecting to drop this term.
GLENNIS:Plus, our Oath candidate of the week is a smoke show out of Montana, and TikTok's Mrs. Frazzled joins us to talk about the Eric Swalwell takedown and accountability for political content creators.
BRIAN:Let's get into it
GLENNIS:Hey, Brian.
BRIAN:How you doing?
GLENNIS:Great. Knicks in five. It happened.
BRIAN:Knicks in five. We only lose when Trump is there. Obsessed.
GLENNIS:Literally could not be more iconic. It is Donald Trump's fault that we even lost one game. What a loser. Now we go right into World Cup.
BRIAN:Have you seen any games yet, and are you horny for, for the World Cup? I was gonna say for FIFA, but we, I guess we hate, hate FIFA, love World Cup.
GLENNIS:No, not for FIFA, because what did we say? FIFA's making $11 billion off of this, tax-free. I made my husband wake up to watch the Knicks game at 2:30 in the morning in Sweden.
I then woke up at 3:30 last night to watch the Sweden game. They won. How about you? Have you watched any games?
BRIAN:I haven't. I've been in London town trying to simultaneously host events in New York City while being here and doing my normal job, so it's just been a lot, and I have not seen a single game, which is breaking my heart, but I will tune into the next US men's team game.
GLENNIS:Yeah, I watched the highlights for the US men. Go US men. They won. It was good. Yeah, go sports.
BRIAN:Sports. Well, sports that we hate include cage fighting- You
GLENNIS:took the wo- … at the White House You took the words right out of my mouth. I avoided this at all costs. I was, like, thrilled, honestly. I don't know if you were on the internet in the last three days, but, like, the entire algorithm has been Knicks, New York City, collectivism, the power of us feeling like we are one, and that happened to magically coincide with Trump's 80th birthday and this, like, UFC cage match. So, like, I barely saw any of it. Like, it was so overpowered.
BRIAN:It couldn't have been trashier- I'm happy … even if they added mud, you know what I mean? Like, it, it was just so tacky and pathetic. I, I continue to see reels of people, literally f- the audience, not professional athletes, audience members fighting each other on the ground, rolling around- What? the White House lawn. Yes. They were fighting in- Can I s- … the audience. It's just too, it's just too trashy. It's a little- Yeah.
GLENNIS:It's a little gay. Like, men were just, like, rolling around in the grass.
BRIAN:It does sound gay when you say it like that.
GLENNIS:You know what made me laugh because it's just so emblematic of the Trump administration and the entire thing? So their whole thing was that it didn't cost taxpayer dollars a dime, even though the, the city of DC had to pay to, like, accommodate certain things. Not only did it not cost the American taxpayer a dime, but actually did. The only way to watch it was on Paramount Plus, which requires a subscription.
BRIAN:Right.
GLENNIS:You c- it was made for the American people, but you gotta pay to play.
BRIAN:It was sponsored by, like, Riyadh. On the White House lawn, you have these giant logos from foreign governments and companies based overseas plastered on the people's house, on the symbol of democracy that is most recognized worldwide. It's a tragedy. It's really grotesque. And they were paying the athletes in crypto using Trump's family's business. It- The whole thing was such a corruption scheme that the approval ratings for it were abysmal, like some of the lowest I've, I've seen anything poll in the last two years. At least he's taking a hit for doing it.
GLENNIS:The whole thing was absolutely gnarly- Oh … and corrupt. The whole time I just kept thinking about that riff you had about is your life better because Donald Trump is president? Is your life more affordable because Donald Trump is president? No, no, no, no, no. So eat shit, Donald Trump. One other thing I wanna talk about before we move on, 'cause I wanna talk about Iran, but I think we have to m- we have to say the thing. Elon Musk is now a trillionaire
BRIAN:Yeah. That's what I have to say about
GLENNIS:that. Literally, I don't know if that was a real fart or a fart noise, but like that. Brian, if you spent a million dollars every single day, it would take you 2,700 years to spend a trillion dollars. So you'd have to start spending it in 700 BC, around the time Homer was writing The Odyssey, and you would just be finished, like, now. Trillionaires don't need to exist.
BRIAN:There's all kinds of things now trying to help people understand the difference between a million, billion, and trillion, which we've never… Our brains are just not built to understand, and we've never had to really try to get people to understand that before. The Wall Street Journal, I think, was the first one to do the pennies. If you stack a million pennies, you have, like, I don't know, 10, 10 Empire State Buildings or something. It goes about a mile into the air. If you stack a billion pennies, it will go from New York to Miami. If you stack a trillion pennies, it will go from the Earth to the Moon and back twice. So like a, a million and a trillion, a, a billion and a trillion just are nowhere, nowhere, nowhere near the same scale to even be thinking about. It's infinity. That's, that's what really we need to think of it as, as it's an infinite amount of money- Yeah … for all practical purposes- Mm-hmm … where we would be talking about cash or capital.
GLENNIS:Yeah. Elon Musk is a trillionaire, and there should be no world in which a trillionaire is able to actu- actually exist, especially when it's someone whose businesses are, like, built off government contracts and subsidies and the American taxpayer and our labor Anyway
BRIAN:tax companies based on the difference in pay between the CEO and their lowest paid employee.
GLENNIS:That's a great idea.
BRIAN:The tax brackets for companies should factor in if your CEO or board chair or whoever is making 1000X what the employees are making, or 20,000X what the employees are making. In, uh, Musk's case, it's probably more than that. Then you should- Mm-hmm … be paying taxes accordingly, because if you're gonna pay your leadership like that, then you need to pay more into the system because we're all gonna subsidize your employees' healthcare, the transit that they use to get to work, and the- Yeah … education that they rely on to conduct their jobs. We're the ones paying for all that, so you should pay back into the system.
GLENNIS:Yeah. And we need to tax unrealized cap gains, but that's a conversation for another day.
BRIAN:Ooh.
GLENNIS:Can we talk about Iran for a second?
BRIAN:I think we gotta.
GLENNIS:There's not even much to say yet. They announced, I didn't even know this was a thing, a memorandum of understanding to end the war, which is essentially a concept of a plan.
BRIAN:It is a concept of a plan. I do MOUs all the time. Love an MOU. They are basically meaningless. Like, it's, it's truly just like a, it's a vibe check with some signatures on it. They're usually, like, not enforceable in any meaningful way. So it was a
GLENNIS:letter of intent?
BRIAN:Yeah, ex- essentially.
GLENNIS:Yeah, whereas, like, a, a letter of intent is enforceable legally, I think. It's kind of like the first draft of a contract. Okay, I wanna say something, which is-
BRIAN:Tell me… GLENNIS: no one asked for this war. One of the main points Donald Trump belabored about this war was that Iran could not have nuclear weapons because Iran is, like, the number one state-sponsored terrorist country. Yet here we are How many days later, with thousands of people have died, we have spent billions of dollars, and in terms of nuclear arms, we are in no different of a position than we were before we started this war. There's a 60-day timeline in this memorandum of understanding for them to, to figure out the details, but there's no guarantee that it's gonna be any better. And then what really, really, really chaps my ass, I don't know if you saw that JD Vance clip. We're, we're gonna want-- we're gonna give them $300 billion to rebuild. No, we're
ANCHOR:not. The Iranians are saying that they're gonna have access to a$300 billion reconstruction fund.
GLENNIS:Who is? They could
ANCHOR:have access to, funded
BRIAN:by- It's coming from Qatar or something. But like, yeah, there's a monetary incentive that we're handing over to Iran, and Republicans, not Democrats, Republicans are furious about it. You're exactly right. All that's happened is that Trump has undone the stuff that he did and made us less safe at the same time. So Iran is no worse off than they were when he started the war. They still have their military capabilities. They've had no change in their ability to produce a nuclear weapon, and they are going to be much richer, to your point. We have depleted our stock of military equipment to the degree that they say it's gonna be before at least 2030 to replace all of the missiles and defense systems that have been either used or damaged in the hundreds of drone attacks that Iran launched at US military bases all over the Middle East. So we are less safe. We are $100 billion poorer. We are paying double the cost in gas and without any, any tangible improvement or meaningful advancement of our position globally. Like, if anything, it, it's just deteriorated. So it is an ongoing pointless war that we all get to pay for for the rest of our lives.
GLENNIS:Great. Lucky us. I'm so-- It, it's just like, I don't know. I'm like, it, it's… I'm also realizing my microphone is fully upside down. That's the kind of, like, day I'm having. It's, it is what-- Like, it, it's It's so disheartening, and it makes me feel crazy. This is a president who ran on no new wars. We just have to keep on organizing, and everyone needs to have a voting plan for the midterms and a voting plan for '28. 100%. Okay. This week we are, uh, supposed to hear from the Supreme Court. They're supposed to give us some rulings on some stuff that's been in their docket. I'm gonna rapid fire some of them to you just to give you what I understand them as. And for the audience, I guess, gird your loins for what the Supreme Court is gonna be doing this week, because these are some pretty major cases. Trump versus Barbara. This is the birthright citizenship. So on Trump's day one, he had an executive order that tried to end the citizenship for babies born to parents that were here temporarily or illegally, and that could effectively end birthright citizenship. Justices seem apprehensive to this. There were some oral arguments, and that's what the experts are saying, but this is major. Transgender athletes. This is West Virginia versus BPJ/Little, Little v. Hecox? Anyway, this is whether the 14th Amendment allows states to bar transgender women and girls from female sports teams. This challenges laws in West Virginia and Idaho, so this is a major case. The transgender athletes stuff is just like, get a grip. Like, truly get a grip. Okay, that one really chops my ass. Presidential firing power, Trump v. Slaughter, LOL. So that was Trump's efforts to fire certain indep- independent agencies, which would be a major separation of powers case. For anyone who's read the Constitution or have taken any politics or US history class in their life on planet Earth in the United States of America, you know that the backbone of our government is the separation of powers. Mail-in ballot deadlines. An Illinois law requires election officials to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day if received within two weeks after. They're arguing that it could have huge implications in the midterms, and there's the, the big one, the campaign finance one Limits are still pending, and it could reshape fundraising rules even before the '26 race, like the
BRIAN:midterms. Yeah, baby. So- So we are at the end of the term, and so we're supposed to hear all of these back before the end of the month, and there are some doozies in here, to say the least. On the birthright citizenship case, if they decide that in Trump's favor, it is basically them saying that the president, by executive order, can change the Constitution, which is the craziest shit you've ever heard in your life. You can't even do that through an act of Congress. Yeah. That would truly, in my eyes, be the biggest deal, but it's the least likely to happen. Everyone thinks we are going to win- Right … the birthright citizenship case. The trans case is likely to be decided against trans athletes, and the real thing to note here is that it's not about trans people in sports. It's about states' rights and whether states have the right to ban trans people when the Supreme Court just came back and said states do not have the right to ban conversion therapy. So if we lose this case, what they're saying is you can ban trans people from playing sports, but you cannot ban torturing them as young people, which is super fucked up in a lot of ways. On the presidential firing power, this is a big deal because Trump has been trying to expand the power of the executive and fire members like, uh, Jay Powell, heads of independent agencies. They don't know- Mm-hmm … what direction that one's gonna go, but we have independent agencies for a reason, and it is a good thing for us to have an independent DOJ, not that you- Yeah would know it if you take one look at this administration. And then on the politics front, mail-in deadlines, big, big deal because there are 16 states that conduct all mail elections or, like, default mail elections. It would completely change how you have to communicate with voters about when they need to vote because the USPS makes no guarantee about when a- Mm-hmm a ballot will be delivered. We would suddenly be in a situation where we have to tell voters- Yeah … if to mail your ballot, you need to mail it, what? Three weeks in advance? And Trump is trying to do crazy shit with USPS, which fucks that up anyway. Lastly, campaign finance. This would basically unrestrict all money from political parties into campaigns, which would be another huge blow to even the most basic, pathetic rules that we currently have in place about campaign finance, and this one is specifically JD Vance's fault, so- F it off
GLENNIS:That reminds me, Brian, did you vote in the New York primary?
BRIAN:No. I'm voting when I get back.
GLENNIS:Are you- do you have a voting plan? Well, I'm asking- I have … if you have a voting plan. You're on the road. I'm just trying to role model for the audience voting. I voted before I left. I had to go to the Board of Elections, and I voted in person with a mail-in ballot.
BRIAN:Absolutely, and I appreciate you modeling that behavior, and you just gave me a literal heart attack, but I will be back in time to vote. Oh, like you
GLENNIS:were gonna be… Yeah, I should have mentioned early voting in, in New York City started on Saturday.
BRIAN:Yeah. I just shit myself. Can you imagine if I missed- Sorry … an election? It would be so embarrassing.
GLENNIS:No, it's literally why my ass went down to Varick Street to go to the Board of Elections to be like,"Hey, I requested a mail-in ballot. I didn't get it. Can I vote? I have to vote." And actually, it was really seamless, and they were like,"Yeah, no problem." But I was like, imagine if on my, like, when you Google if I voted, and it was, like, missed
BRIAN:People always forget, it is a public record whether or not you vote every time. Not who you vote for, that is secret, but whether you vote is public record. I'm like batting 1,000 baby. I, I never miss a random-ass primary, a special election. Even if there's nothing competitive on my ballot, I'm there. I'm like horny for it. I'm filling out my bubbles. I love it.
GLENNIS:You're filling it in. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, we got the voting fever. The voting fever. Pro-democracy, that's us, Brian Derrick, Glennis Meagher. Okay. So while we're on the election hotline, the pro-democracy, the filling out the ballots, who is your oath candidate of the week?
BRIAN:If you're horny for democracy, do I have a treat for you? Because Sam Forstag is running as a Democrat for the US House of Representatives in Montana, and he is a smoking hot smoke jumper, which if you didn't know, which I did not know before this election cycle, a smoke jumper is someone who parachutes out of a plane into a wildfire where you can't otherwise reach to fight the fire, and it's like the most dangerous type of firefighting there is. It's very intense. He was raised by a single mother, has worked in union jobs pretty much his whole career. Is attractive, and you know what they say, run more hot people. And so that's-- Montana heard us, heard our demands.
GLENNIS:Yeah, if he can fight wildfires on the front lines in Montana, he can work in the hallways of Capitol Hill. That is for sure. And as someone who used to work for the state of Montana, I, uh, implore my Montanans to support this candidate. I love Montana, and I want only the best for Montana. Wow. Go Montana.
BRIAN:Do you feel like our politicians act like eight-year-olds? Because I often do, and that is why I'm obsessed with Mrs. Frazzled.
GLENNIS:Yes, we are thrilled to have Arielle Fodor here, AKA Mrs. Frazzled. Follow her on all platforms. And we are here today to talk about her unique positioning in the Eric Swalwell takedown. Okay, great. I just cl- I just-- If you heard that signal, I just shut down my signal. Chaos. We are absolutely thrilled to have Arielle with us here today on Vibes Only. How are you doing?
MRS. FRAZZLED:I'm doing good. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me. This is such a wonderful opportunity to yap with you, which is a dream of mine, so perfect.
GLENNIS:We're yappers, and we're thrilled to yap with you because we have a lot to talk to you about. You have been hard at work using your platform, your trust with your audience to help better the Democratic Party. For those who don't know, although I guess everyone knows at this point, but if you don't, Arielle, with two other women, was it with Cheyenne Hunt from- Mm-hmm … gen Z For Change and Meg at Pretty Informed Girls, you guys worked as a coalition to help voice what was the open secret of Eric Swalwell, uh, the former congressman, and former candidate for governor, and you ended his career because he is a bad, bad man.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Yes. He's a bad, bad man, and you know what? It's so funny that you mention that everybody knows by now. Thousands of people voted for him in the election, and I was like, "Huh. Is that an education gap we must address? Or, or like 27,988 people voted for him in the
GLENNIS:election
MRS. FRAZZLED:here."
GLENNIS:Yeah. It's something that Brian and I have been talking about on this pod. We had Eliza Orlins on a couple weeks ago because she's really, really, really hammering on the Epstein class and continuing that drumbeat to talk about it and talk about who is protecting the Epstein class, and last week we're talking about Graham Platner and how Mainers did in fact vote for him when we do know that he has severe, severe judgment issues. But it's a very valid point that, yeah, people then continued to vote for him when it was clearly adjudicated that he is A criminal
BRIAN:A sex pest.
GLENNIS:Yeah. Allegedly a criminal. Yeah.
BRIAN:I feel like you can kind of get 20,000 votes in California behind a bag of dog shit. You know what I mean? Like, you… I think that- Yeah once your name's on the ballot, if, if everyone in the state has heard your name in any context, you're gonna get some votes just 'cause people have no idea what the fuck is happening in this crazy world that we live in. Any is too many for him, for sure. Can you tell us a little bit about, like, how you came to be in that position?'Cause I think that for a lot of people, if they didn't follow it closely, they might not understand how you as a incredible creator, I don't know if you consider yourself independent media, I would probably call you that-
MRS. FRAZZLED:Thank you… BRIAN: sort of ended up in, in important truths and this mirror up for, uh, people in California. Yeah. I mean, to your point, the candidate that is called Living For God And Country, they got 2,000 votes in California. Like, you're so right. Like, it's just like people are just vibing, which is kind of nice 'cause it's freeing to be like, "You know what? This is what the internet is. It's okay. These people exist." I don't know. I think part of, like, what I'm grappling with, even the question of, like, do you consider yourself an independent media company? These are things that have come to the forefront after this experience, which this all went public April 10th. So we are here in June recording this. And with distance from it, I don't know how it came to be. I just got so tired of hearing about this and feeling like a lot of my really close friends who are amazing were just like, "This is just what it is." This is what it is in Washington, D.C. These men are sex pests a lot of the times, harassment runs rampant. I couldn't accept it. I mean, I was going to these meetings with other lawmakers and thinking to myself, "Am I going to show up to these gubernatorial events and hobnob with this man who I know what he did?" And then when I posted online, I was like, "You know what, y'all? I have had enough." I was in the Signal chats with all the other creators being like, "You're going to think I lost my mind," and I, uh, frankly, I have. I, I can't do it. And I think there's a disconnect between being in California and being in D.C. There's a lot of young people in D.C. who these politicians hold their career in their palm of their hand. You know? They have such power socially as well, because you're gonna show up to these events, whatever. In California, in LA where I am, I don't have that. I have the freedom to be able to like, "This is just a dude who's doing bad shit," you know? So I have that ability, so I just posted. And then once I posted, it got obviously very, very much worse.
GLENNIS:Right. And once you posted, correct me if I'm wrong, your followers or people in your network reached out to you, and I think that speaks to you as a creator and as a human being that you have such strong parasocial but trusting relationships with the people who follow you and watch your content. So I applaud you for that because you've created a safe environment for your audience to feel like they can a- approach you with this information. I'm curious, what was your personal fact-checking journey? I've seen in interviews you talk about how anyone in the United States of America can come after you for anything and sue your ass. So what was that thought process like, and how did you kind of get your ducks in a row b- before you kind of started talking about it? Because, you know, to Brian's independent media point, you don't have a newsroom behind you. You don't have fact-checkers. You don't have people on the phone calling to corroborate. So what was that like for you?
MRS. FRAZZLED:It was wild. I mean, I was telling independent journalists and investigative journalists how much I am in awe of what they do because not only is it, like, a lot of work, but it's also very emotionally trying work, especially given the stuff that was coming forward and coming out. My process, it started the same as it does for all of my content. I take fact-checking and research extremely, extremely seriously. I don't know if I've got a know-it-all bone that just will not quit, but it's something that I find to be a central responsibility in what I do, that if I'm gonna talk on something, I better be correct, especially if it's an accusation. I'm not somebody who makes call-out content. I'm not somebody who makes content exposing things. Um, some people do. I don't. So I, I s- started from the same place I start from everything is, like, I had receipts. I had personal friends. I had independently corroborated things where I've watched a couple true crime documentaries, and you know… L- but h- hear me out. You know how, like-
GLENNIS:I'm sat… MRS. FRAZZLED: there's an investigation"We didn't tell you everything we knew because we wanted to know that if people were coming to us, they would say-" Mm-hmm … a certain thing, and then that would clue us in, like, this could be a very credible allegation." It was the Snapchat. It was like I wouldn't tell anybody- Mm… about the Snapchat, and there was other things, like, that I wouldn't say, too, that- Right … I still, like, whatever. I'm holding onto certain little details. So with the receipts that I saw independently corroborating these stories, talking to personal friends, talking to lawmakers, talking to people that work on the Hill, I just felt like it got to a place where it was true. And my- the madness of it was I took out an, an umbrella insurance policy on my house because somebody said- Hmm … if they sue you, you can, like, use this to not maybe lose your house. And as you guys know, I am sole breadwinner right now. I have three kids. At the time, they were all under four, so I'm like, "We have to, like, buckle in." But I just, I, I was compelled to do it. And then as I started getting more and more tips, it became very important that I was working with a newsroom, with investigators. And the first person that came forward was Cheyenne Hunt, because one of her very good friends had seen my Threads post. And I do a lot of, like, test posting on Threads. I don't- Hmm … always post stuff direct to video because I wanna see what the temperature is. I wanna see what questions people have. So I was, you know, shaking the tree, acting insane on Threads. Yeah.
MRS. FRAZZLED:And then-
GLENNIS:Testing the waters, seeing how- Exactly … the Threads community would react. Yeah.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Literally, I don't know if you guys know Randi Weingarten. At one point she calls me- Yeah, of course… president of AFT, calls me and goes, "Hey, how are you doing?" Mm. And I was like,"Uh, not well, Randi." And she was like,"I just, it's, I'm seeing a different Mrs. Frazzled on Threads than I usually do." And I was like- Right … "Correct. Right."
GLENNIS:Out of, out of character for what, what kind of content you typically produce. Yeah.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Yes. But, like, I think you hear certain horrible things, and I feel like if it doesn't make you lose your mind, maybe we've lost a little bit of our, like, humanity in a way. So I'm like- Mm-hmm … whatever. So one of Cheyenne's really good friends DM'd her, texted her, and said, "This is true. This happened to me. Please make a video." So Cheyenne did, and then I had heard about it, and I was like, "I'm not alone anymore." I was so excited she had made a video. So we have this, like, trifecta of, like, victim, her, me, and every day just doing this in the group chat. Mm. And we had a lot of reporters that were interested, but I was very interested in CNN because they had the historical knowledge. They had been working on this story before, 2016, 2019, and now. Mm. They had huge resources behind them. I mean, reading the article, I just got shivers at how many things, point, point, point. I mean, like, sh- they were fact-checking the shit out of this, as they should. Obviously, you can't just- And they have to like willy-nilly say it. Yeah. Yes. They didn't ask me for the exclusive. I called them. I called Allison Gordon and I was like,"Listen, I need you to take all of the stories that we're getting because you are, like, kind and patient and smart, and you have this behind you, and I can't handle it." And then we had lawyers as well that were really helpful volunteering their time and their expertise because everybody knew. I mean, a lot of these people- Yeah … had known about this.
GLENNIS:Everyone, yeah. You alluded to this, but just to, like, affirm for the Vibes Only audience, this was a very open secret in Washington, D.C. circles that Swalwell was a sex pest with DMs, and to your comment on the Snapchat, he would add people to Snapchat, which is very strange for a sitting member of Congress to do at a fundraising event. Ugh. To be like, "Hey, let me get your Snapchat." It's like, "No, bro, I'm good." Ryan, go ahead.
BRIAN:Well, I know that you were pretty much immediately accused of being, like, paid political operatives, and I think we're seeing that trend Across the board, whenever people are seeing content from creators that they don't like or that disagree with them or are supporting one of their opponents, now it's just universal to call that person a paid operative, particularly because our laws around it are not modernized to account for content creators, and there is huge gaps in any sort of law currently that requires disclosure. How do you respond to that? It's hard to prove a negative. And how should we be thinking about creators getting paid, which needs to happen for us to have the types of creators that, that you are, where you can bring this information and we have this really important resource in the ecosystem, but also in a way that people can have and maintain trust?
MRS. FRAZZLED:I'm so glad you brought that up. Since this has happened, I have noticed that some people are tr- A, trying to go vigilante. I've noticed that there's an uptick in people trying to do this investigative stuff on their own. And it makes me nervous because it is always so nuanced, and there is so much going into everything all the time that it's not always clear. And for the disclosure stuff, it is so clutch, and like you said, how do we prove a negative? But it's almost a witch hunt all the time of you're paid. I saw Goody Proctor at a chorus meeting. I have never taken campaign money. I won't, because just the nature of what it is, whatever. It doesn't matter. Yeah. Like, I just, I know I'm not gonna show up on those disclosures because I didn't take the freaking money. So I don't really worry about it for me. But if we are going to have a world in which we are paying creators, which we should, like you said, TV ads, maybe not the most impactful if we look at who spent that where in the California gubernatorial. But we should be thinking about this, and we need to modernize the laws so that there isn't this doubt and this distrust, because if you're trying to utilize a creator's platform, which that's of course what they're doing, they're trying to buy a spot on our platforms when they use us for advertising. You're actually buying the trust of our audience, which is meticulously created. I have always said, "If we don't have the trust of our audience, we actually are completely worthless. We have nothing."
GLENNIS:Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.
MRS. FRAZZLED:And I, I've said this to newer creators who are tempted to take the money for candidates. I'm like, "You need to think about- How much is your platform worth?
GLENNIS:Hmm.
MRS. FRAZZLED:If this tanks your credibility, are you going to lose more money than you're going to make from this one-time candidate? Because that is, that's what we're working with. If that's the case, we need to have laws that foster that trust, and I think there's a, an inclination sometimes for orgs or politicians or political parties to think, "We just, we don't want anybody to say anything because it looks a certain way." It looks worse if you, if you aren't fostering that trust. Like, get on board with that need or go away.
GLENNIS:We talked about this a lot with Mamdani, like if you actually have policies that people wanna talk about and celebrate, you're not gonna need to pay them to do it.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Right.
GLENNIS:Thank you so much. I mean, you with the coalition of women that you worked with on this, you were able to do something that many, many people did not have the bravery to do for many years. So thank you so much for your leadership in this moment, and for everything that you've done so far as a content creator in the last six years. I can't believe it's only been six years. I feel like I've seen you on my screen- I know … forever, but maybe we've really only been- 'Cause we,
MRS. FRAZZLED:it was through the lockdown. I mean, that's dog years. Mm.
GLENNIS:Yeah.
MRS. FRAZZLED:We were in
GLENNIS:it. My goodness.
MRS. FRAZZLED:I know.
GLENNIS:Uh, well, thank you so much.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Thanks, Glennis. Thanks, Brian.
BRIAN:Do you wanna do a good vibe?
GLENNIS:Okay. My good vibe of the week literally is the Knicks, Knicks in five. I was not in New York City. I had the worst FOMO of my life, but the videos coming out of New York City are so incredible, show absolute unity, collectivism, what I feel like America truly is, and that to me is the good vibe of the week. The icing on the cake, the cherry on top, was that it completely 100% overshadowed anything that Donald Trump is doing for his birthday.
BRIAN:Boom, baby. Go Knicks.
GLENNIS:Okay. That's the vibe this week, and tomorrow morning we're going to drop a bonus episode.
BRIAN:Our full conversation with Mrs. Frazzled drops first thing tomorrow. Follow now so that you don't miss it.
GLENNIS:And we'll see you to read the vibes of the week first thing next Thursday.
BRIAN:Bye.
