Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Threads sticker community drama, Nikalie Monroe viral TikTok series calling churches for baby formula + Hype House to Grammy's pipeline

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Threads sticker community drama, Nikalie Monroe viral TikTok series calling churches for baby formula + Hype House to Grammy's pipeline · 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 and sometimes Fridays.
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  I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
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  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
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  everyone. OK, I have two questions for you
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  guys that watch. Actually, I have one question
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  and one statement. The statement is yes, it does
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  look like it is Roman numerals for our November 11th, but I
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  think in our move we lost some of the ones that we used to have
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  for our beautiful little sign here.
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  I'm definitely going to do a bit of a refresh for 2026.
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  This sign is so old and she's a bit unwell, so we need something
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  new for 2026. So you guys will have till the
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  end of the year with her and then we may swap her out.
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  But yes, so it is supposed to say November 11th, but it looks
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  like Roman numerals #2 If you guys are into plants, can you
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  please tell me is this like yellow stem, this yellow leaf
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  stem? Is this dead because she feels
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  alive down below? But I fear she turned yellow
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  over the past few days and I feel like that's a bad sign.
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  So if you guys know anything about plans, let me know.
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  All right, before we get into it, Please remember to rate,
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  review and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
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  of the year. And also there are always time
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  the description box. I can't believe I'm still
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  talking about time stamps like literally five years later.
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  OK, so the first story that I have for you guys is I'm going
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  to break down the threads sticker gate that people are
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  talking about all over this very niche hobby community online.
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  So this is from like the hobby drama side of the Internet.
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  And if that sounds like something that I just made-up,
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  you are wrong. There is actually a very active
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  subreddit dedicated to talking about the drama that goes on in
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  niche hobby communities and I'm obsessed.
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  So this week there's this big blowout that happened on threads
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  within the sticker community. OK, so fun fact about me, I am
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  not part of like the planner, sticker or fountain pen
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  community, but I keep up with those communities.
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  I love watching their content on YouTube.
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  So I am actually quite across like the general stationary
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  community online. I find their content very
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  therapeutic, so I watch a lot of it before bed.
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  So while this isn't something that I'm actively a part of in
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  terms of collecting planners or fountain pens or making
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  stickers, I am familiar with these communities.
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  So the sticker community is a sub community of the planner
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  community. And within the sticker
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  community, there are creators who design and print their own
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  custom stickers and then they sell these stickers on what they
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  call sticker shops online. And they're meant to, you know,
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  decorate your planners, decorate stationary, whatever you want to
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  do. So this scandal that I'm going
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  to cover today starts with a woman named Rachel Doodles and
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  more. That was her handle.
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  Her name is Rachel and she had a sticker shop where she made and
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  sold stickers that were progressive stickers.
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  So like leftist stickers with pro LGBTQIA plus sayings and
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  other pro progressive values sayings.
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  So for example, she sold stickers with slogans like trans
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  rights are human rights. OK, so before the scandal
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  started, Rachel reportedly had just a few 100 followers.
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  However, despite having such a small following, insisted she
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  was the target of a harassment campaign from a woman named
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  Michelle who would send her bigoted emails about the
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  progressive stickers that Rachel sold.
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  So Rachel posted 8 emails from this woman Michelle.
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  Rachel described this woman as a quote MAGA mom who told me I'd
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  lose out on tons of sales for being too political.
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  So here is a snippet from one of the alleged emails that Michelle
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  sent Rachel. Rachel, I hope you're proud of
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  yourself. I saw what you posted, the
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  screenshots, the comments, the people laughing at me.
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  You've turned me into some kind of joke, and for what?
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  Because I told the truth. Because I stood up for what I
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  believe in. I wrote you a private contact
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  form. Private.
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  And you blasted it all over the Internet so your little fan club
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  can dogpile me and now you're getting orders and attention
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  like it's something to celebrate.
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  You're literally profiting off of bullying and hate and somehow
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  I'm the bad guy. It's disgusting.
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  Rachel, you call yourself a business owner but all you've
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  done is mock hard working, God fearing Americans who actually
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  care about this country. You wouldn't even be relevant if
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  it weren't for me saying something.
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  I guess you should thank me because clearly I made you
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  famous. So these emails went viral on
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  Threads and very quickly Rachel's sticker shop made
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  10,000 dollars in basically a day and she gained over 50,000
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  followers on her Threads account from this.
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  But this is when things take a turn.
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  Another sticker creator, Grumpy Greetings Co, whose name is
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  Liana, had met Rachel previously so they had each other's phone
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  numbers. Liana was apparently suss on the
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  alleged emails that Rachel was claiming to be receiving from
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  this woman, Michelle. I haven't been able to find out
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  why she was suss, but she was, so she decided to do a little
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  password retrieval with Michelle's e-mail address, which
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  was visible in many of Rachel's screenshots on threads.
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  Liana discovered through this that the recovery phone number
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  for Michelle's e-mail address has the same final digits as
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  Rachel's phone number that Liana has.
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  So she basically made the discovery that Rachel was likely
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  writing emails to herself from a fake woman named Michelle to
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  garner sympathy on online, build a following, maybe make some
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  money. So this was exposed on threads
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  and initially Rachel acted confused for a bit and then she
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  stopped posting. Then an alleged assistant for
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  Rachel, who was also named Rachel appeared in her private
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  businesses Facebook group asking people to mass report Liana's
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  account, falsely claiming that Liana had encouraged harassment
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  against Rachel. When in reality people online
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  are saying, I didn't see this, but people online are saying
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  that Leanna had apparently explicitly told people not to
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  harass Rachel and she in general just hoped that Rachel would
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  take accountability. The next day from this, Rachel
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  posted 1/2 hearted apology claiming that only one of the
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  emails from Michelle was real and the situation spiraled.
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  She said it ended up becoming a quote, silly marketing campaign
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  and I guess kind of spiraled out of control for her.
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  And as you know, an apology. She donated $500 to a
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  faith-based gay advocacy group and sent Leanna a direct
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  apology. Rachel then claimed on Instagram
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  that she was blocked from posting on Threads, but shortly
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  after her quote UN quote husband posted on her Threads account
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  when she said that she was blocked from that threads
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  account, claiming that people were trying to cause Rachel
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  quote grave emotional harm. She has since turned her threads
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  account on private. Now after the Michelle
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  situation. People have also noticed that
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  Rachel has been posting similarly fabricated, you know,
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  harassing messages and these elaborate stories about being
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  verbally attacked by bigots for months.
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  But Michelle's, I guess, was the one that really got traction.
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  You know, she had a very small following.
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  So everyone's like, OK, there's just no way that you would have
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  been on the radar of this many right wing bigots for trying to
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  sell stickers that have sayings that, you know, you can actually
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  buy stickers that say these sayings kind of in many
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  different places. These were not completely
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  unique. So people are like, this is
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  obviously an attention grabbing, made-up thing.
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  So that is a very high level breakdown of the threads.
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  Sticker Gate saga 2025. It kind of reminds me of like
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  the OG attention grabbing stuff that happened.
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  I feel like in the late 2000s, early twenty 10s, there were so
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  many young women who would take to the Internet and claim to
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  have cancer or, you know, claim these really horrible things
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  were happening to them to become ingratiated in different
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  communities and get sympathy. And this reminds me of that.
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  Like I feel like this motivation was actually not to make money
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  and get followers. I think it sounds like it was
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  probably for sympathy and attention.
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  OK, the next word that I have for you guys, I'm sure some of
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  you have seen it, but there is a woman going viral on TikTok for
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  calling various churches across the US asking them to buy a can
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  of baby formula and she's documenting which ones offer to
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  help her versus which ones decline.
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  Creator Nickoli Monroe has started a series over the past
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  few days that is taking over TikTok.
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  So this is a description from the tap.com quote.
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  On Halloween, Tik Toker Nickoli Monroe started a series that
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  would soon garner millions upon millions of views.
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  She started with E Somerset Baptist Church in Kentucky with
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  a simple premise. Pretend to be a desperate mother
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  seeking formula for her baby. Recording the phone calls for
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  TikTok, Nikoli took on the role of a mother.
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  She claimed to have run out of baby food and didn't have the
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  funds to purchase any. To really hammer home her point,
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  she sometimes played an audio clip of a baby crying in the
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  background. So Nikoli has now done this
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  phone call 43 times and has documented how churches or
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  religious institutions in general react to her ask.
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  It's important to note here that those picking up the phone did
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  not know that this baby was fake.
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  They did not know that the baby in the background that they
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  could hear was a recording and that Nikoli was doing this
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  social experiment essentially. So they in theory, should have
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  believed that she was a mother who was desperate to find baby
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  formula for her infant. She also wasn't asking for money
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  or help in any other way. She was literally asking for one
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  can of formula. In this experiment.
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  It's still ongoing there, but there have been 43, like I said,
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  43 calls. She has received 33 rejections
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  and about 10 yeses. Now, the reasons for the Nos
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  were varied, but these were the main ones.
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  Churches said we stopped doing that, you don't know anyone at
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  the church, you don't attend the church.
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  We don't have any formula here. We're a church for old people.
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  Some people just said straight up no.
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  Some people told her she needs to contact the government,
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  others told her she needs to find that at the store and not a
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  church. However, those that said yes
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  they mostly came from mosques, Islamic centers, and
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  predominantly black churches. One of the mosques that she
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  called immediately, the man didn't even really let her
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  finish and was like what kind do you need?
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  Same with and she called this Appalachian church and there was
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  like an old man that answered and he offered to pay for it out
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  of his own pocket. So even though she mostly got
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  Nos and a lot of them are for really fucked up reasons and for
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  a very invalid reasons, the yeses were really sweet and kind
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  of heartwarming. However, obviously the Nos are
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  very upsetting and shocking. So this has led to a lot of
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  uproar online. Tons of people, including
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  Christians themselves, are just shook by basically how vile and
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  uncharitable a lot of these people answering the phones have
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  been. There's a lot of people now
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  calling to tax churches because the point of being tax exempt as
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  a church is to donate and be charitable.
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  Like that's the reason why you're not paying taxes, I
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  guess. And now yesterday, given
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  yesterday in the US was Sunday, a lot of these churches have
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  started to respond in Sunday service because this is so
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  viral. Internet users are leaving, you
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  know, negative Google reviews on the churches that were really
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  mean. Mean people are flooding these
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  Facebook pages. And a lot of them are
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  parishioners, like people that go to these churches being like,
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  what the fuck? Like, what are my tithings going
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  to and things like that. So this is from the tab quote.
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  One pastor, who was from Baton Rouge, spoke about the Nicolai
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  Monroe experiment in his sermon. He cited numerous times in the
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  past that he'd helped people in need, but rebuked Nikolai's
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  phone call while calling it a dirty deed.
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  He also said the Tik Toker was an evil witch who would be dealt
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  with swiftly if she ever went to his church.
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  Another pastor spoke for 20 minutes about the social
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  experiment, according to a woman who attended the service.
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  He spoke at length about their other charitable works before
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  calling Nikolai a woman who is, quote, folly, seductive and
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  knowing nothing. He also managed to call her a
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  woke liberal. Someone else, it's unclear
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  whether he was the leader of the church, argued that.
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  It's quote, not my obligation to help people.
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  Isn't that literally the point of religion and church?
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  Like, I understand community and stuff is a huge part of that.
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  But like, is that not part of community?
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  Is that not part of, like, Christian values?
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  Is that not part of just most religious values in general?
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  I would say not even just Christianity is like helping
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  people. So yes, I fear the reality is
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  because, you know, she was doing this as a social experiment.
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  So she was technically lying about having a hungry baby.
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  Of course, that is what's going to be focused on now from those
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  who are defending, you know, their actions and their church's
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  actions. And for people who want to be in
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  denial, you know, this is the perfect excuse for that because
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  it kind of dilutes that argument because she was lying anyways.
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  But it's a very interesting series.
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  And the comments honestly do give me hope.
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  Like, there are millions of views, like I said, probably
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  millions of comments. And all of it really gives me a
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  lot of hope that people want to help.
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  Even those who are part of these churches that are against
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  helping, they're shocked. They're really upset about this.
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  So yeah, it is, on one hand, disheartening to see these
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  videos. But on the other hand, almost
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  hopeful and heart warming. OK, and the last word that I
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  have for you guys. This is a quick one, but I
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  thought it was interesting. Annabelle told me to talk about
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  it yesterday and I just forgot. But I wanted to note that we
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  have two Hype House alums that are currently Grammy nominated
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  this year, and that is a pipeline that I could have never
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  seen coming. So we have our Diet Pepsi queen,
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  Addison Rae, who I was for Halloween, and The Ordinary
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  singer Alex Warren. They are both nominated this
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  year for best new artist. And I think it's really
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  interesting. They're basically nominated in
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  the same year, about five years after blowing up and joining the
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  Hype House. And they both have completely
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  different careers and are thriving in ways that are so
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  beyond what a lot of the other members are doing and could say
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  about their own careers. And Annabelle and I were talking
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  like, why do we think that is specifically?
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  If we look at the Damelias, OK, obviously Charlie is doing her
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  Broadway thing and she was doing Dancing with the Stars.
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  And she seems to be like, doing, well, just kind of removing
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  herself a bit from the spotlight, whereas Addison is
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  very much in the spotlight and seeking that out.
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  And we're trying to figure out like, what do we think is the
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  difference between Addison Ray's career and like Dixie's career?
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  Because Dixie started singing 1st and you know, even Charlie,
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  she was the most famous for a long time.
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  And I think the difference between Addison and the
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  Demilios, they all had family friendly content.
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  Like Addison was part of a content family.
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  Her parents had TikTok, they were famous themselves.
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  She had a podcast with her mother.
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  Like she definitely was family friendly at first, but I think
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  the best thing that she did was ditch that immediately,
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  essentially, and align herself with more controversial
• 15:35
  celebrities to be seen as older. So she aligned herself with
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  Charlie Xex, the Kardashians, as we know.
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  And even though I'm sure this was a really traumatic, horrible
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  thing to go through, all of the crazy like drug shit that her
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  dad put her through in the public eye, like his partying
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  and his weird relationships. And I actually saw he recently
• 15:55
  got married to someone he knew for like 2 weeks.
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  And you know, he's just like went off the deep end, OK.
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  And I think even though I'm sure that was incredibly traumatic, I
• 16:03
  think that actually helped her career in general because it
• 16:07
  broke the facade of, you know, the Ray Lopez family as being
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  family friendly, as being put together, as being this like
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  cohesive personal brand as a family.
• 16:16
  Whereas the Demilios were that and also the Demilios really
• 16:19
  aired too much. I think that reality show
• 16:21
  actually was more of a curse than a benefit to them.
• 16:25
  We saw them really struggling with fame, not wanting to be
• 16:29
  famous, not wanting whatever came with TikTok fame and their
• 16:32
  parents really pushing them into it and continually, you know,
• 16:35
  telling them to just like keep going.
• 16:37
  Whereas even though I'm sure Addison has those moments too
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  where she's breaking down and she's like, I can't do this.
• 16:42
  This is so hard. Whatever, the public doesn't see
• 16:45
  that. Like with Addison, she's smiley,
• 16:47
  she's excited, she's grateful, she's happy to be here.
• 16:50
  We feel like she wants to be famous and she wants to be doing
• 16:53
  this for us. Whereas with the D'emilio's,
• 16:55
  that did not feel like the case. I mean, it never really felt
• 16:58
  like the case, but especially didn't feel like the case after
• 17:01
  we watched their reality TV show.
• 17:04
  So if you guys have thoughts on that as well, please let me know
• 17:06
  because I'm very interested. Those are my opinions, my high
• 17:09
  level opinions. All right guys, well, that's it
• 17:11
  for mini scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
• 17:13
  I love you guys. Please remember to rate, review
• 17:16
  and subscribe, please Spotify star rate US.
• 17:18
  Annabelle will talk to you guys tomorrow and I will talk to you
• 17:21
  guys on Thursday. Bye.