BONUS: Taylor Lorenz says "don't blame social media"
Top Comment
BBC
2.8 • 947 Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this bonus interview episode, Matt and Marianna are joined in the studio by leading social media journalist Taylor Lorenz. They discuss the evolution of meme culture, Clavicular's enduring virality, and why Elon Musk briefly kicked her off X. Plus, as the list of countries seeking stricter regulation of social media grows, why is Taylor so resistant to the legislation being proposed in the UK and US, and what are the alternatives?
Top Comment is hosted by Marianna Spring and Matt Shea. The series producer is Laurie Kalus. The social producer is Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The editor is Justine Lang. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | The 8th of August, 1963, a gang of thieves hold up a British Royal Mail train on its way from Glasgow to London. |
| 0:16.0 | More than two million pounds was stolen, and Ronnie Biggs was the most famous face of the great train robbery. |
| 0:22.8 | Daniel Mays reveals the true story of Ronnie Biggs. |
| 0:26.4 | A train robbery, a prison escape and 36 years on the run. |
| 0:30.6 | Gangster Presents the story of Ronnie Biggs. |
| 0:33.9 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:37.3 | Today we have something new for a top Comment, which is we have a guest. |
| 0:40.8 | We do. |
| 0:41.5 | Taylor Lorenz, she's one of the top social media journalists and tech journalists. |
| 0:46.3 | She's a curator of memes. |
| 0:48.3 | She's an incredibly big deal in the world of tech and social media. |
| 0:50.9 | She used to work at like New York Times, Washington Post, didn't she? |
| 0:52.8 | Yep. |
| 0:53.3 | And she's increasingly becoming one of the most vocal critics of legislation that aims to regulate social media. |
| 1:01.5 | And we spoke about all these things and about some of her more... |
| 1:06.1 | I don't know if controversial is the right view, but perhaps less mainstream views. |
| 1:08.7 | Less mainstream views. |
| 1:10.0 | Less mainstream views. Less mainstream views. Less mainstream views. Yes. |
| 1:10.9 | ...to deal with social media companies. |
| 1:11.4 | Yeah. As well as being arguably the leading social media journalist, I think that's a fair accolade, what one of. |
| 1:46.8 | You also are, I think, one of the best curators of memes in the world through your Taylor-Lerence 3.0 |
... |
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