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SMNTY Classics: SMNTY Checks Their Calendar · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie. And Samantha. And welcome to Stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I Never Told You, a production of iHeartRadio. And today
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: we are bringing back a classic on current administration, trying
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to erase DEI initiatives and things like Black History Month and, um,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I just feel like since we had this conversation, now
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: we've got a new aspect of Trump trying to rename everything.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: And some companies just going along with it, you know?
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: A lot of companies. A lot of companies. Like, yeah,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: it's Lake America now, sure.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: MapQuest standing strong.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: MapQuest. Who knew we would be talking about this? Certainly
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: not me. But yeah, the conversation does continue. And this
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: is something that I do find interesting. I think people
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: can dismiss it really easily. But it's caused wars when
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: like where the borders are drawn and Google Maps and stuff.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Like it's a serious business. Serious business. So please enjoy
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: this classic episode and let's hope the companies don't go
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: with Trump Ocean. Let's just hope for that one. Hey,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff I
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Never Told You, a production of iHeartRadio. And today's date
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: is February 14th, 2025. Happy Valentine's Day, Samantha.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Happy Valentine's again.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, which is kind of relevant to what we're
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: talking about today, which is calendars. So I mentioned the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: date because we're kind of talking about politics today and
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: things are so rapidly changing. As Samantha mentioned recently, The
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: current administration has been really, really aggressive with the executive
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: orders and rolling back anything even remotely, remotely, possibly related
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to DEI or just related to marginalized communities in general.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Since as this comes out, it is President's Day, which
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I think we have off. It's funny to me how
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: many holidays I'm not entirely sure we have off. I'll
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: be working that day because unfortunate thing, but I must work.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: But I did want to stop and talk about all
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: of the months and holidays that the administration is trying
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: to erase. And not just the administration, because we are
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: currently seeing huge tech companies absolutely fall in line with
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Trump and his extreme policies around this. So in late January,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: early February, people started noticing that Google has started removing
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: things from their calendar. Black History Month, Women's History Month,
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  Speaker 1: Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pride Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and Jewish
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: American Heritage Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: National American Indian Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Well,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: things like Columbus Day, which I thought was gone already,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: but all right. Well, here's back and President's Day remain. Okay. Obviously,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: this caused a big backlash, but the company claims that
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: this is something that they started implementing last year because it, quote,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: wasn't scalable and that they just couldn't keep up with
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: all the events and holidays and observances around the world.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: But the timing is very interesting, I think we can say.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: They were basically like, we can't keep up with all
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: of them. And people rightfully mocked them for it because
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: they're this huge company that collects data. Anyway.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: That collects data that has decided to do calendars as
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: part of their thing, but they can't do it. Also,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: what does erasing have to do with keeping up?
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: There's more work to erase it than it is to
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: leave it.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: That's true. It was already there. It was already there.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: And also, weirdly enough, some of their doodles, like the
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Google doodles, still observe these occasions. Like there was a
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Black History Month one. There was a Lunar New Year one.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: They also have curated playlists around things like this. So, okay,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: outside of Google and tech, the Defense Intelligence Agency removed
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a video about the Tuskegee Airmen, which was a group
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: of segregated Black men who fought for the U.S. in
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: World War II. It eventually was restored after a pushback,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: but I'm not sure if it's still up. A part
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: of the reason Black History Month is celebrated in February
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: has to do with Douglas Day, celebrated for Frederick Douglass'
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: birthday on February 14th, which, again, timely as we record this.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: This was something segregated schools in D.C. would celebrate. In 1926,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: that grew into a week-long remembrance and also involved Lincoln's birthday.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: In the 70s, it became Black History Month. Since 1996,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: every U.S. president has released an official proclamation about Black
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: History Month. But not now. All right. So Google, along
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: with a lot of other tech companies and other companies
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: at large, pretty much eliminated their DEI initiatives with the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: reasoning that they are a federal contractor and have to
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: comply with the administration's policies. Just a reminder, Google's company
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: slogan is do no evil. So more than 500 million
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: people use Google Calendar, me included. So this is a
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: big deal. It feels like kind of a small thing
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: to talk about, but it communicates so much. And I
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: do use it. Samantha and I literally rework on this show.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: And we forgot it was Women's History Month in March.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: But I mean, to us, it's always Women's History Month.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: And that's going to be the case with us with
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: all of these things. We're going to keep talking about
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: them no matter the month, and especially during the month,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: no matter what they say. But it is kind of,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: it was a nice reminder. It'd be like, oh, yes,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: thank you. It is Women's History Month. On top of that,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: both Google and Apple have changed the name of the
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on their maps. Also,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: if you're interested, probably not surprising, but this is a
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: hugely contentious point in terms of borders and wars. I
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: believe there's a whole episode on tech stuff about Google
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Maps and how the borders impact wars.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Look into that. I know that's not related to calendars.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I just want to put that in there. And then
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: also just to mention, I've been talking about this anecdotally
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: with a lot of my friends, but we've also done research.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Some of it is in our Manosphere episode, but the
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: misogyny online is getting worse. And it's spreading to offline
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: spaces too. And yeah, like I said, we're going to
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: keep doing this stuff beyond the month's During the months,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: all of this, as an intersectional feminist podcast, it does matter.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: And obviously, Black history exists whether a president endorses it
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: or not. And Black activists have been fighting to preserve
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: it for so long. So we need to elevate these
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: things at all times. But it is very troubling because
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: so many people do use things like Google Calendar.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: That's that. That's where we are. And it's changing so quickly.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: We'll see what happens. Because there is a lot of
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: technology things we need to talk about. And luckily, friend
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: of the show Bridget is coming back. She is so
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: good at illuminating these very complex and distressing situations and
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: providing resources. So that's very exciting. But there's a lot
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: going on. When it comes to technology and all of
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: these things.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Right. And one of the ways that we are rebelling
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: is making sure that we are not a part of
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: being that erasure. And I say this as a royal we,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: you the listener, and us as a host coming together
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: and acknowledging that. Yes.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Let's keep doing it. Yes. Yes. They say in
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Star Wars, welcome to the rebellion. Come on. We're just waiting.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: It's the first thing I hear. She was so excited. Sorry.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: But yes, listeners, if you would like to contact us,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: you can, including on some of these many platforms. You
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: can email us at hello at stuffonnevertoldyou.com. You can find
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: us on Blue Sky at MomStuffPodcast or on Instagram and
• 9:21
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• 9:24
  Speaker 1: TeePublic store and we have a book. You can get
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: wherever you get your books. Thanks, as always, to our
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: super producer, Christina, our executive producer, Maya, and our contributor, Joey.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Thank you. And thanks to you for listening. Stuff We'll
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Never Tell You is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
• 9:35
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• 9:37
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