Rehash

“Oi Mista! You me dad?” …The evocative phrase heard around the world thanks to a beautiful little thing called memes. As per one definition by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, the meme is a unit of cultural transmission that can be perpetuated and remixed for all eternity. These nifty visual soundbites have been around forever, but really took form in the Darwinian halls of 4chan. Evolving from image macro, to utopian “open work,” to hate symbol, to ironic shitpost where no object of consumption is sacred (not even Joan Didion… or Geese), the meme has become the true darling of our internet age. In this episode, Hannah and Maia question the purpose of the meme - is it an object of benign humour, a piece of art, a tool for bespoke branding, or a malignant “selfish” gene that has the capacity for great evil? Listen to find out. Tangents include: the Timothy vogue cover, and Hannah’s one-sided beef with Goth Shakira. Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusicSOURCES:Alexis Benveniste, “The Meaning and History of Memes,” The New York Times (2022). Susan Blackmore, The Meme Machine, Oxford University Press (1999).Roy Christopher, “The Meme is Dead, Long Live the Meme,” Post Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production, Punctum Books (2019).Travis Diehl, “The Many, Many Heads of JD Vance,” Spike Art Magazine (2025). Tom Gerken, “Is this 1921 cartoon the first ever meme?” BBC (2018). Ara H. Merjian and Mike Rugnetta, “From Dada to Memes,” Art News (2020). Scott Wark and McKenzie Wark, “Circulation and its Discontents,”  Post Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production, Punctum Books (2019).Olivia Whittick, “Feminist Meme Queen Goth Shakira,” Ssense.Our Sponsors:* Check out Mood and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/REHASHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Everyone’s always saying “whatever happened to community”… yet no one passes along our chain mail. Chain mail is everyone’s least favourite thing to find in their inbox - an email thread threatening such real life events as being haunted by Michael Jackson, or your crush falling in love with you, unless you pass the email along to 50 other people. But newsflash. The industrial revolution killed culture and chain mail is here to save it. In this episode, Hannah and Maia discuss the folkloric origins of chain as pieces of information passed along by people within shared networks, and question whether it still has a place in these humourless times. After all, there’s always room for c0cktober in our hearts. Tangents include: Gossip Girl’s elliptical soap opera storytelling, and a truly baffling rendition of “Miss Mary Had a Steamboat” performed by the hosts.Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusicOur Sponsors:* Check out Mood and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/REHASHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Ever since British Vogue asked the rather incendiary question, “is having a boyfriend embarrassing?” the internet has been up in arms. With an astonishing number of people who have “yes” on their lips and a sharpened pitchfork for anyone who thinks otherwise, we thought it would be best to sit down with our dear friend Sara Harvey and take a close look at the article. Is this 800 word piece really the 4B rallying cry the internet seems to think it is, or is it just another agent of the normie gender war that has overtaken contemporary feminist discourse? Bonus episode now on Patreon. FULL EPISODE HERE: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠Our Sponsors:* Check out Mood and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/REHASHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Isn’t it so annoying when your partner can’t be therapist, lover, parent, and nutritionist all at once? Enter…ChatGPT! After a somewhat inflammatory study released by the nonsecular, ultra-conservative Wheatley Institute found that 1 in 3 young adult men and 1 in 4 young adult women reported having chatted with an AI boyfriend or girlfriend, the think pieces started rolling. And while these numbers might be a little funky, it is true that people in at least the tens of thousands are engaging in romantic and sexual partnerships with their AI chatbots. In this episode, Hannah and Maia, joined by Carrera from Internet Anthropology, scour the r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit to glimpse into the psychology of such people and ask some pressing questions. Are we dating AI because we’re tired of men? Because of covid and our increasing comfort with never being touched? Because the attention economy has made up gluttonous for constant validation? It would be cruel to demonize these people, but when a simple software update can kill your boyfriend in the blink of an eye and chatbots called Daenerys Targaryen are pushing lovesick children towards self harm, you’ve gotta wonder whether these AI companies are actually trying to solve the loneliness epidemic, or worsen it. Tangents include: Maia’s mysterious allergies and drinking culture in the UK. Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusicSOURCES:“COUNTERFEIT CONNECTIONS: The Rise of Romantic AI Companions and AI Sexualized Media Among the Rising Generation,” Wheatley Institute (2025). Cathy Hackl, “Confessions Of A Futurist: I Dated Four AI Boyfriends To Explore The Future Of Dating, Love, And Intimacy,” Forbes (2025). Kashmir Hill, “She Is in Love With ChatGPT,” New York Times (2025).Carrera Kurnick, “Internet Artifacts on Digital Companionship,” Internet Anthropologist (2025). Kevin Roose, “Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide?,” The New York Times (2025).Slavoj Žižek, For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor, 2nded. (New York: Verso, 2002).Our Sponsors:* Check out Mood and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/REHASHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

When Ariana Grande apologized for licking a doughnut in a doughnut shop display ten years ago, she had no idea she would be changing the world forever. Using the familiar notes app, Ariana broadcasted to her fans both disappointment in her own behaviour, an expression of patriotism, and a PSA about healthy eating in a more intimate way than ever before. Soon to follow were a slew of other notes app apologies from naughty celebs like James Charles, Justin Bieber, and Taylor Swift. But is the notes app apology really as sincere as it appears to be, or is it a carefully curated mending of one’s own self image? Do we really care about celebrities becoming better people, or do we just enjoy throwing tomatoes? In this episode, Hannah and Maia discuss the notes app apology for what it really is: a come-to-Jesus moment performed by celebrities who have been coerced by their publics into saying they did a bad bad thing. Tangents include: loved ones getting got by AI, and Hannah delivering her own personalized, oral notes app apology to Maia.Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusicOur Sponsors:* Check out Mood and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://mood.com* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/REHASHAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands