Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I am the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs Magazine.

We're talking today about the world of influencers, those online celebrities who sell false dreams and impossible lifestyles.

And to understand this world, I am joined by Gabrielle Bluestone.

She is a journalist and attorney.

Her work has appeared in New York Times, The Washington Post,

a vice, and elsewhere. She is also the author of the book, How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists are taking over the internet and why we're

following available from Hanover Square Press. I should also mention that she is the producer

of the Netflix documentary, Fire.

Gabriel Bluestone, thank you so much for joining me. Of course. Thank you so much for having me.

So the documentary that you produced, fire, is not fire with an eye, it's fire with a why.

And it's fire with a why because it is about the infamous

fire festival. And for people who do not know, I think the fire festival also forms the kind

of centerpiece of your book. It runs as a thread throughout the book. It is kind of the case

study that you use for this wider examination of the world of online influencer bullshit.

And so perhaps we could start, for those who have forgotten the fire festival, or it is

drifted out of their memory, perhaps we could go back to what the fire festival was or what it was meant to be and was not.

Yes, that is an excellent way of putting it.

The Fire Festival, for those of you without Instagram accounts, I assume, was supposed to be the most luxurious, magnificent music festival ever created.

Like, it was supposed to put Coachella in the dust.

They hired some of the most famous models and influencers in the world to promote it.

They hyped it as this private island with private jets that would take you to see these incredible sights

and sounds. And when the attendees arrived and what they found was a gravel development pit

...