Dare Market, hantavirus, and wtf is going on at JPMorgan?
Top Comment
BBC
2.8 • 947 Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Launched last year, the website Dare Market describes itself as "the platform where you can dare anyone to do almost anything for real cash bounties". On this episode, Marianna speaks to Isla Rose Perfito, the founder of the site inviting comparisons to Black Mirror. From the individuals putting themselves at risk for financial gain, to brands sponsoring increasingly outlandish challenges, we ask whether her vision of a flourishing attention economy which rewards small entrepreneurial creators is realistic. And, why did the Church of Scientology send her a cease and desist letter?
Also this week, a viral interview from SXSW has reignited online discourse surrounding music's so-called 'industry plants'. Revelations about fake influencer campaigns are calling into question the rapid rise of bands and artists like Geese and Oklou, who were once celebrated for growing loyal audiences independently. In an online ecosystem dominated by digital marketing, Matt considers whether the concept of discovering new music organically is now an illusion.
Plus - panic over hantavirus, and the wild JPMorgan lawsuit sending meme production into overdrive.
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 Jack Graysmark. The editor is Justine Lang. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
If you want to get in touch about something that's popped up on your feed, our email address is topcomment@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.5 | The Most Haunted House in England, or a Victorian ghost hunters' elaborate hoax. |
| 0:12.7 | Witnesses to genuine poltergeist activity are at 1960s Yorkshire family with an overactive imagination. |
| 0:20.6 | Join me, Danny Robbins, and my team of paranormal experts as we dig deep into the past, |
| 0:26.4 | reopening classic cases and searching for the truths they left behind. |
| 0:32.1 | Uncanny cold cases. Listen on BBC sounds. |
| 0:36.1 | So Matt, do you remember the pandemic? Yeah, I think I remember that |
| 0:41.1 | life-changing historical event that we all lived through. Yeah, it was terrible. So everyone is |
| 0:46.7 | freaking out on social media, certainly on my feeds, over the past like 24 hours, because there is this |
| 0:52.2 | cruise ship which has has there are several people |
| 0:55.3 | including some people who've died and other people who've been taken really unwell |
| 0:59.5 | with something called hanta virus which we think is spread through rat poo yeah the thing about |
| 1:07.5 | hantavirus is it is transmitted either through airborne particles from rat |
| 1:12.4 | feces. Matt here is quite literally an armchair virologist. |
| 1:16.1 | Hanta virologist, yeah. There's going to be a lot more of us in the next few weeks, I guarantee |
| 1:20.8 | you. The other way it can be transmitted in very rare cases in only one strain, and we still don't |
| 1:26.4 | really fully understand this is by |
| 1:27.5 | close human contact. So this isn't like coronavirus where you could be in the same vicinity |
| 1:33.1 | as someone in cough or whatever. This is like real physical contact. Now as you might imagine |
| 1:37.9 | there is quite a lot of misinformation already swirling about but the TikToks are just like, |
| 1:42.6 | no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not doing another lockdown. And obviously right now, there's no suggestion that that's going to happen. But you can see why it's such a good example of where social media kind of becomes the incubator for everybody panicking. And I guess because we all experienced COVID through our feeds as well, people are like, I mean, they're on it with the memes. |
| 2:01.6 | Like there's all these memes of people saying, obviously this is a joke. |
... |
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