Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Matilda Djerf returns, Grace O'Malley vs. Barstool, Just Trish axes Jeffree Star episode + Halley Kate update

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Matilda Djerf returns, Grace O'Malley vs. Barstool, Just Trish axes Jeffree Star episode + Halley Kate update · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  Happy Wednesday. Just one more day of Mini Scroll
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  for the year. Today I have four stories for
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  you guys and every single story is an update.
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  So if you guys don't know the full context of like each of
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  these stories, just scroll back. I'm always talking about them
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  just like an episode or two before this.
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  But it doesn't make sense for me to like reiterate every single
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  story or like rehash every single story that I'm going to
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  cover here because most of them I've covered just in the last
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  couple of days. I never know how much context to
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  give you guys, first of all, on like updates to stories, but
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  also on who different creators are.
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  I was thinking about that when I was prepping this and I was
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  thinking like, well, people know who like Dave Portnoy is like
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  probably, but there will be a subset of you guys that like
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  might not know who he is. So if I'm just like, oh, and
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  then Dave, people might be like, who the fuck is Dave?
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  So if you guys have, I don't know, any recommendations or
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  feedback or like preferences on that, let me know.
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  I think the vast majority of our audience here like is very
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  online. So you guys know who I'm talking
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  about when I say someone's name. You typically know who that is,
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  but I would be open to your feedback.
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  OK, so the first story that I have for you guys is that
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  Matilda Jerf has returned to social media following the
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  workplace allegations with a new statement.
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  So Matilda has made a new statement on her Instagram grid
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  about the allegations that she fostered a toxic work
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  environment and bullied previous staff.
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  Again, this is one of those stories that I talked about for
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  a very long time, 2 episodes ago.
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  So go back and listen. Her statement is 4 tiles so I
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  won't read all of it because that would be very long.
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  But she says over the past few days I've been quiet on social
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  media. My highest priority has been to
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  meet with the JERF Ave. team and speak to them.
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  I am fully aware that my words here are not an answer or a
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  solution for me. It's important to write this
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  directly to you. Then she goes on to say to
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  anyone who I've hurt or let down.
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  I want to start off by saying that I'm genuinely sorry.
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  When I started Durf Avenue, I never expected that the company
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  would be what it is today with so many team members and so much
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  responsibility. I wasn't ready.
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  I had never let A-Team prior to this.
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  I had never built a company prior to this and under a lot of
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  stress, high tempo, and nitivity.
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  I'm sorry you guys. That's one of my words.
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  If you guys have been listening to this podcast for a long, long
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  time, like anonymity, I said it right there, but there's certain
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  words like the Itchys, I just like struggle.
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  Like I can read it, I can write it, but I cannot say it out
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  loud. Naivety, naivety, naivety, you
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  know what I mean? I failed to be the leader and
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  colleague I wish to be along the way.
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  And for that I am so, so sorry. Then she went on to explain very
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  similar to what I said. The CEO already said that they
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  were going to be doing like hiring external HR.
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  I don't think they're like replacing management, but like
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  hiring a more experienced management team, introducing
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  monthly anonymous surveys to collect feedback.
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  So she kind of just explained what the actions the company is
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  going to take will be moving forward.
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  OK, so her saying that she wasn't ready for this
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  responsibility for this role. I mean, I agree with that.
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  She was really young when this happened, when all of this like
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  happened. I mean, she pursued it,
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  obviously, but you know, she was really young when she started
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  the company and it blew up really quickly.
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  And I as somebody who runs a company that is literally like a
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  fraction of the size of Derf Ave. like, and I'm also, I'm not
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  ten years older than her, but I'm like maybe 767 years older
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  than her. And I had corporate experience
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  before this, you know, I don't know if Matilda has ever had
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  corporate job before. I don't know if she just has
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  always been an influencer. I don't really know her
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  background. But you know, like I had some
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  experience in like, you know, the workplace in the corporate
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  world. But it is a whole different ball
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  game to be like running your own company and managing people when
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  you don't have somebody who's like teaching you how to manage
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  people as well. And you might not have like the
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  right mentorship. And yes, I, I was not ready.
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  I believe she was not ready to, but just say that like you were
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  not ready for this and therefore you bullied your employees is so
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  delusional. I would hope that my team has
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  never felt that just because I've like made tons of mistakes
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  and have no idea what I'm doing half of the time that that
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  doesn't translate into me, you know, fostering a toxic work
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  environment for them and like putting them down and body
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  shaming them and being so exclusive.
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  But they can't use the same toilet as me and then getting
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  them to like scrub the toilet if they use it like that behavior.
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  I understand. She's saying she was like really
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  overwhelmed and stressed and I believe all of that stuff.
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  But the problem is like that's not how you take that out on
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  people. I think the bigger problem here
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  is what I said initially when I reported on this story is that
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  obviously this is just like a case of I think we see this a
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  lot. She's absolutely not, you know,
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  unique in this where these kind of founders, whether they're
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  influencers or not, they become influencers through being these
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  founders. You know, like the, I think the
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  ego just goes to your head. And when you think about like
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  male entrepreneurs and the culture that we see from that,
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  like whether it's in tech or like e-commerce, like whatever,
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  the founder Bros are probably just as toxic, to be honest.
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  And if you think about the egos that are going on there, it's
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  not like an exclusively like Matilda thing.
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  However, she is incredibly visible.
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  She, like I said before, has built this platform.
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  I said this a couple days ago. She built her platform off of
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  being really sweet and touting these kind of inclusive values.
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  And so she has farther to fall. I definitely don't think the
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  story of, you know, a founder being egotistical and toxic to
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  their staff and taking all of that out on their staff and
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  making their staff feel like little and bullying them and
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  whatever. Like, I don't think that's a
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  unique story in like the entrepreneurship, like founder
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  world at all. But I think her excuses for why
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  she did what she did are just not acceptable.
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  OK. And the next story that I have
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  is that Grace O'Malley has quit Barstool following her falling
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  out with Brianna Chicken Fries. So yesterday, Grace took to
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  Instagram Stories revealing that she has left Barstool Sports
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  after her podcast with her former BFF Brianna Chicken Fry
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  is ending. And you know, they had a massive
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  falling out. Again, I covered this on the
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  podcast. So she wrote on Instagram
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  stories. I wanted you guys to hear it
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  from me first that this is my last day at Barstool.
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  I'm so grateful for everyone at the company and today for taking
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  a chance on me. I'm just as surprised as you
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  are. There are no typos in this
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  statement. So Dave made two response videos
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  on TikTok. The first one, he confirmed that
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  Grace quit and that she still has a year on her contract, but
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  she decided to quit. He did not fire her.
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  And then the second, he was like very heated and he was sharing
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  all these private text messages between himself and Grace.
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  I think he's tired of the narrative that the fans have
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  created that he is like completely on Brianna's side and
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  is like throwing Grace under the bus.
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  And he was trying to prove that that's not the case, that
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  throughout this whole process, like he has been supporting
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  Grace and he wants her to succeed and he's let her kind of
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  just like make her own decisions and do whatever she wants.
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  Sorry, I should say Dave Portnoy, who is the owner of
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  Barstool Sports. I don't know if I said that.
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  So that's an example of the context.
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  So yes, so he made this video and then he also was addressing
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  because a lot of people have been saying that the reason why
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  he took Brianna's side is because she looks so much like
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  his ex-wife and she does like before some of the more recent
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  work that she's had done, they do look very similar.
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  So everyone's like maybe Dave has like a soft spot in his
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  heart for Brianna because she looks like his ex-wife.
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  Maybe he has like a crush on her.
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  Like I don't know. I think it's just more so
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  Brianna has worked for Dave for like 5 plus years.
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  I think it's very clear that Dave plays favorites at
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  Barstool. It's on a very, you know, above
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  board HR friendly workplace. I think he just has like this
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  long history and now friendship with Brianna.
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  And so, you know, he hasn't known Grace or been working with
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  Grace for nearly as long. I know he's really trying to say
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  that he's not taking favorites or picking sides, but like he is
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  obviously, I know he also gave they gave Grace the opportunity
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  to speak her side of things on the podcast.
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  However, I do think just from an optics perspective, he should
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  not have allowed Brianna to talk with him on their joint podcast
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  about another employee without her also being there to share
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  her side of the story. I think that was like really
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  unprofessional. Again, not that I think that
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  Barstool Sports is like the beacon of professionalism, but,
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  you know, I think that's where like people got that from.
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  If Brianna had just told that stuff, like everything she was
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  talking to Josh and Dave about, If she had just told that story
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  either just to Josh or like, I don't know, on her own channel
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  somewhere else, or she had somebody else talking to her on
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  BFFS, not Dave, then I think that everything would not have
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  blown up to the level that it did.
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  But that's obviously why everybody thinks that Dave took
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  Rihanna side. I'm also not surprised that
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  Grace quit. I think her comedy career is
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  about to take off and the Internet loves her.
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  So I think it's the right time for her to go out on her own.
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  OK, The next story that I have for you guys is that Tricia
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  Paytas has finally confirmed she will not be publishing her
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  interview episode with Jeffree Star on just Trish.
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  So we have been waiting for like, I don't know, maybe six
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  weeks. It's been a while since Tricia
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  interviewed or like had Jeffrey on her podcast and the Internet
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  exploded. Everybody was so shook to see
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  the videos of them together because what we actually did a
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  deep dive, a full deep dive a few weeks ago into the like
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  messy friendship breakup between Tricia, Jeffrey and Shane and
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  how like by sister and all of that, like played a role.
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  So go listen to that if you guys need to know the lore.
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  But basically, yes, they were going to, I guess, like hash it
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  out or like show that they're on kind of better terms or
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  something. In this podcast.
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  It was right after Jeffrey did canceled and him doing canceled
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  that was not well received by the audience.
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  You know, like Tana and Brooks fans were like, what the hell?
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  And I think people who are fans of Trish were even more shook
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  because Jeffrey was a really bad friend to Trish.
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  And people kind of felt like, come on, Trish, like you're
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  trying to, she's having this like, quote UN quote
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  Renaissance. And like, you know, I think she
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  is trying to very much rehab her image.
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  And in a lot of ways it's working.
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  Despite how we might feel about that.
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  It is working in a lot of ways. And, you know, having Jeffrey
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  star somebody who is like, so deeply problematic, not that
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  Trish is not, but like, so, so deeply, unapologetically
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  problematic. I think that's the difference.
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  Jeffrey doesn't give a flying fuck like how offensive he is.
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  He does not care that he is like hurt so many people over the
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  course of his career. I think people see Tricia's
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  redemption as her trying to make right and having remorse.
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  So anyways, that's like a whole other kettle of fish.
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  But yes, so people were like, why would you have Jeffrey star
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  on your podcast? Like this is just going to set
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  you back. And yes, she basically spoke on
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  her podcast now and just said after seeing the reception that
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  everybody had, like the feedback that everybody was sending in
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  about this and then talking to Jeffrey on the podcast about
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  drama again. And she said she felt there were
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  so many hurt feelings around drama get in and she didn't want
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  to, like, bring up any old drama and, like, hurt anyone else in
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  the process. She was like, I didn't even know
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  these people. Like, I was not part of it.
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  So I didn't really want to get involved.
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  And yeah, I think it was mostly just she knew that she would
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  kind of isolate, like a large portion of her audience who was
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  saying, like, Trish, please, why did you do this?
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  Please don't publish this. All right.
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  And the last way that I have for you guys last update is that
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  Hallie Kate has addressed the backlash about her clothing hall
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  return. So I wanted to close the loop on
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  this. This is like so minor and I know
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  a lot of you guys already know this, but I was confused
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  yesterday when I reported on the story.
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  I thought maybe she was sent the clothes or I thought maybe it
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  was like a paid partnership. No, she bought these clothes
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  with her own money and then returned them.
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  OK, like, welcome to shopping. So she was saying that she had
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  to make this video. She was actually crying in half
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  of it, which was really sad because she was saying, you
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  know, like this. It's really hard to just, like,
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  constantly see so much, like, feedback about yourself.
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  And it does, like, get to me. I wish it didn't, but it does.
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  And yeah, she was saying that when she was.
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  So this was in 2022. So a few years ago, she was
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  like, I was a different person than I am now.
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  Like, I would just shop endlessly.
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  I assume this is when she started making like, good, good
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  money. She's like, I would go into
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  stores. I would just buy anything that I
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  wanted to, like, see, and I wouldn't try it on.
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  And then I would just go home and like, she'd make content
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  with it. She'd do hauls, She'd do try
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  ONS, whatever. And then she would return
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  whatever didn't fit her or she didn't like.
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  So that makes this whole scenario even crazier to me.
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  You guys know how I feel about it if you listen to yesterday's
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  episode. But the fact the fact that the
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  original creator was trying to say to her like it's not that
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  deep girl when she's the one that's like taking photos of her
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  in public and like posting them on the Internet to like end like
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  a gotcha moment. I just can't.
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  I was like, that makes it even crazier to me.
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  The fact that Hallie bought these clothes with her own
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  money. It was not a brand sponsorship.
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  It was not sent to her. She was not selling PR like I
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  can't crazy. Anyways, guys, that's it for
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  mini scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
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  Please remember to rate review and subscribe.
• 14:16
  Please star rate US on Spotify. We're trying to get to 500 by
• 14:19
  the end of the year. I don't know if we're going to
• 14:21
  make it, but we're going to try. I love you guys and I will talk
• 14:26
  to you tomorrow for the last mini scroll for three weeks.
• 14:30
  But there will still be a deep dive.
• 14:32
  Like I said, it will be with Alex and Annabelle.
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  So you guys will get to meet some of my team, which is
• 14:36
  exciting. OK, bye.