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Monday Mini: SMNTY Checks Their Calendar · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha, and welcome to stuff.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Will never told you, but actually if I heard you,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And today's date is February fourteenth, Happy twenty five.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Happy Valentine's Day, Samantha, Happy Valentiz again.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, which is kind of relevant to what we're
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: talking about today, which is calendars. So I mentioned the
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: date because we're kind of talking about politics today and
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: things are so rapidly changing. As Samantha mentioned recently, the
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: current administration has been really really aggressive with the executive
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: orders and rolling back anything even remotely remotely possibly related
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: to DEI are just related to marginalized communities in general.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Since as this comes out, it is President's Day, which
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I think we have off, it's funny to me how
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: many holidays I'm not entirely sure we have off. I'll
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: be working that day because an unfortunate.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Thing, but I must work.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: But I did want to stop and talk about all
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: of the months and holidays at the administration is trying
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: to erase, and not just the administration, because we are
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: currently seeing huge tech companies absolutely fall in line with
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Trump and his extreme policies around this. So in late
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: January early February, people started noticing that Google has started
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: removing things from their calendar. Black History Month, Women's History Month,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pride Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and Jewish
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: American Heritage Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: National American Indian Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Well,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: things like Columbus Day, which I thought was gone already
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: but all right here it's back, and President's Day remain.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Obviously this caused a big backlash, but the company claims
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: that this is something that they started implementing last year
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: because it quote wasn't scalable and that they just couldn't
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: keep up with all the events and holidays and observances
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: around the world.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: But the timing is very interesting. I think we can
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: say they.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Were basically like, we can't keep up with all of them,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: and people rightfully mocked them for it because they're this
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: huge company.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: That collects data anyway that.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Has decided to do calendars as part of their thing,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: but they can't do it. Also, what does a racing
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: have to do with keeping up? There's more work to
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: erase it than it is to leave it.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: That's true, it was already there. It was already there.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: And also, weirdly enough, some of their doodles, like the
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Google Doodle, still observe these occasions, like there was a
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Black History Month one, there was a lunar New Year one.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: They also have curated playlists around things like this. So okay,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Outside of Google and Tech, the Defense Intelligence Agency removed
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a video about the Tuskegee Airmen, which was a group
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: of segregated black men who fought for the US and
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: World War Two. It eventually was restored after a pushback,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: but I'm not.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Sure if it's still up.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: A part of the reason Black History Month is celebrated
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: in February has to do with Douglas Day, celebrated for
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Frederick Douglas's birthday on February fourteenth, which again timely as
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: we record this, this was something segregated schools in DC
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: would celebrate in nineteen twenty six that grew into a
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: week long remembrance and also involved Lincoln's birthday. In the seventies,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: it became Black History Month. Since nineteen ninety six, every
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: US president has released an official proclamation about Black History Month,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: but not now a right, so Google, along with a
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: lot of other tech companies and other companies at large
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: pretty much eliminated their DEI initiatives with the reasoning that
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: they are a federal contractor and have to comply with
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: the administration's policies. Just a reminder, Google's company slogan is
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: do no Evil. So more than five hundred million people
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: use Google Calendar me included, So this is a big deal.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: It feels like kind of a small thing to talk about,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: but it communicates so much and I do use it.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Samantha and I literally we work on this show and
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: we forgot.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: It was Women's History Month in March. Yep.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I mean to us, it's always Women's History Month.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: But correct.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: And that's gonna be the That's going to be the
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: case with us with all of these things. We're gonna
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: keep talking about them no matter the month, and especially
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: during the month, no matter what they say. But it
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: is kind of it was a nice reminder. You'd be like, oh, yes,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: thank you, it is women's history.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Fine.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: On top of that, both Google and Apple have changed
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: of America on their maps. Also, if you're interested, probably
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: not surprising, but this is a hugely contentious point in
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: terms of borders and wars, Like there's a I believe
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: there's a whole episode on tech stuff about Google Maps
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: and how it the borders impact wars, So look into that.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: I know that's not related to calendars. I just want
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: to put that in there. And then also just to mention,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: I've been talking about this anecdotally with a lot of
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: my friends, but we've also done research. Some of it
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: is in our Manisphere episode. But the misogyny online is
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: getting really it's getting worse, and it's spreading to offline
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: spaces too. And yeah, like I said, we're going to
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: keep doing this stuff beyond the months. During the month
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: all of this as an intersextional feminist podcast, it does matter.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: And obviously black history exists whether a president endorses it
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: or not, and black activists have been fighting to preserve
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: it for so long, so we need to elevate these
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: things at all times. But it is very troubling because
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: so many people do use things like Google Calendar. Yeah,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: that's that. That's where we are, and it's so it's
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: changing so quickly. We'll see what happens. Because there is
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: a lot of tech knowlogy things we need to talk about.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: And luckily friend of the show, Bridget is coming back.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: She is so good at illuminating this is very complex
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: and distressing situations and providing resources. So that's very exciting.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: But there's a lot going on when it comes to
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: technology and all of these things.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: Right, and one of the ways of that we are
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: rebelling is making sure that we are not a part
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: of being that erasure. And I would say I say
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: this as a royal we you the listener, and us
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: as a host coming together like acknowledging that yes, yeah,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: keep doing it.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Yes, say say in Star Wars, Welcome to the Rebellion,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: come on.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Waiting.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: It's the first thing I hear first. She was so excited.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Sorry, but yes, listeners, if you would like to contact us,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: you can and gruding on some of these many platforms.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: You can email us at Hello at stephone Never Told
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: You dot com. You can find us on zuu sky
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: at mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: steffone Never Told You for us on YouTube. We have
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: a tea public store, and we have a book you
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: to hear a super producer Christine, our executive producer Maya,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: and your contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: for listening. Stephane never told you his protection of iHeart Radio.
• 8:01
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• 8:03
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• 8:04
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