Hey, I'm Kate Lindsay, and you're listening to I see Y.I or in case you missed it, Slate's

podcast about internet culture. We have a really fun episode today,

but I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that this really fun episode is coming during a time

when things otherwise feel pretty scary. And you know, I go back and forth between wanting

to escape from the news, but then also wanting to be as up to date as possible.

And it could be hard to know where to land.

But in these moments, I do think it is important to have those moments of joy.

And I think this episode can be that for you.

And we have the best person here with us to do that.

Slate writer and the person who has made me audibly

L.O.L. and Slack multiple times. It is David Mack. Welcome, David. Thank you. Fun and petty

are my middle names. I'm glad to be here. David, we brought you in because in this first month of 2026, it hasn't even actually been a full month.

We've witnessed obviously some of the most depressing and horrible headlines in recent memory,

but it's also brought us so much, like remarkably so much petty, low-stakes drama that I feel like we haven't seen

in a while or maybe I hadn't appreciated until now because Slate Plus listeners will know

that we kicked off the year with Ashley Tisdale pending a cut essay about her toxic mom group

drama. And it kind of seems like everyone saw that and took it as permission to be messy.

They're like, this is the year I aired all out. So we're going to break down three of these stories today. And I want to jump right into the first one, David, by reading a message that

you posted in Slack last week. You wrote, I feel like we need a new word for this tier of

celebrities who are famous because they are near other celebrities

because what do you mean the guy who operates the glam bot has been canceled and so david i'm going to

throw that question back at you what do you mean the guy who operates the glam bot has been canceled

...