A Vaccine Is Not a Personality

ICYMI

Slate Podcasts

Entertainment News, News, Tech News, Society & Culture

3.8 • 678 Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode, Rachelle Hampton and Madison Malone Kircher look at the way the COVID vaccines have seemed to develop online personalities. They discuss how the memes and merch inspired by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson can actually encourage vaccine hesitancy—which is all the more disappointing since there are actually some pretty informative TikToks out there about COVID-19. Next, they speak to a few Slatesters who might not have purchased vaxx merch but definitely made their own reckless online purchases, by buying things through targeted Instagram ads. Do these impulse buys ever bring us the joy we think they will? For more on this topic, check out “How Pfizer Became the Status Vax” by Slate’s Heather Schwedel. Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Derek John. Support ICYMI and listen to the show with zero ads. Sign up to become a Slate Plus member for just $1 for your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	They're called COVID-19. They have four cans and they're coming. Four cans? Please.
0:09.4	Hi, I'm Rachel Hampton. And I'm Madison Malone Kircher. You're listening to I see why
0:18.2	am I. In case you missed it. Slate's podcast about internet culture.
0:22.6	Today's the day, Rachel, I finally understand NFTs.
0:26.6	I am fully up on non-fungible tokens, and I'm going to explain them to you.
0:31.6	Honestly, thank you so much.
0:33.6	I don't understand what they are, and I feel like it's an important part of my job to know what they are.
0:39.5	So thank you, Madison.
0:41.4	I felt the same way, which is why I took it upon myself to learn what they're all about.
0:46.3	And I really found that there was a single tweet that summed them up for me perfectly, and I'm excited to share it with you.
0:58.0	Yeah. It is from a user whose handle is at Girl Mode. And the tweet is, yeah, I have NFTs.
1:01.0	Nice fucking tits.
1:03.0	Madison, I thought you were actually going to tell what you want,
1:08.0	NFT ones.
1:10.0	No, I'm not. This is the last. We're going to talk
1:12.0	about NFTs on the podcast. That's probably a lie and I reserve the right to change my mind.
1:15.9	I feel like we should know what they are, but okay. I just, it was a really good tweet.
1:22.8	But we're not actually talking about NFTs today. We're going to talk about vaccines and all the ways that
1:28.6	Instagram is built to convince you to shop and all the weird shit convinced us, me, you to buy in
1:34.9	the last year while we were stuck at home. I sort of like to think of Instagram as QVC on my phone.
1:42.0	It's QVC, but with an algorithm that knows exactly what to serve you. But before we get
1:48.3	into the stuff that I actually want to buy, we're going to get into some stuff that I wish didn't
	...

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