There Are No Girls on the Internet

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TECHNOLOGY
UPDATED WEEKLY

Marginalized voices have always been at the forefront of the internet, yet our stories often go overlooked. Bridget Todd chronicles our experiences online, and the ways marginalized voices have shaped the internet from the very beginning. We need monuments to all of the identities that make being online what it is. So let’s build them.

2 DAYS AGO

Target Scammed Black Vendors and We Have Receipts

In 2020, Target pledged to support Black creators and communities. Target spotlighted their products, and made headlines with its public commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. But now, those promises look like little more than PR spin. Black creators and vendors who once collaborated with the brand say they weren’t just abandoned — they were exploited. From one-sided partnerships to pay-to-play marketing schemes, this episode investigates how a major corporation cashed in on the racial justice movement… and then just walked away. We speak to Kiara Imani, a former Target vendor who is one of the Black entrepreneurs now speaking out. She was originally thrilled when a game she designed, "LikeU Cards," was included in Target's collection, only to quickly realize she was caught up in a pay-to-play scheme that was more about Target's PR than actually selling her product. She's also an attorney and author of the book Therapy Isn’t Just For White People. She explains what went down, what she was promised versus what she actually got, and unpacks the backlash, the boycott, and why some former Target collaborators are now calling it what it really was all along: a scam. Kiara’s TikTok about Target: https://www.tiktok.com/@kiara_imani_will/video/7481347076442606894 Buy Kiara book Therapy Isn’t Just For White People: https://www.mahoganybooks.com/9781735145884 Check out LikeU cards: https://likeucards.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqCZCnuFV-4u8l9PynC9x1nNFbC0DCrVv0_IYqoRsPTvnt-FEX5 If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

57 min
6 DAYS AGO

Joe Rogan has Trump Regrets; Linda Yaccarino says bye Elon; Jeff Bezos Eyes Vogue?; NYT Helps Smear Mamdani – NEWS ROUNDUP!

The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: Capturing The New York Times https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capturing-the-new-york-times/id1570901784?i=1000620995068 Listen and subscribe to the new season of Afterlives spotlighting Marsha P Johnson: https://www.afterlivespod.com/ Listen to Outlaws: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-outlaws-with-ts-madison-273947965/ Joe Rogan is SHOCKED that Donald Trump, whom he helped elect, is doing the awful things he consistently said he was planning do: https://gizmodo.com/joe-rogan-feels-trump-betrayed-him-on-immigration-2000624426 Is Jeff Bezos buying the iconic fashion magazine Vogue as a gift for his new wife? Our intuition says, "maybe!": https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-14878623/Jeff-Bezos-Vogue-magazine-wedding-Lauren-Sanchez.html A new Virginia law to protect privacy is causing some online stores like Walmart.com to display a pop-up that asks shoppers to surrender their privacy or else shop someplace else. Progress? https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/pop-up-on-walmart-website-warns-virginia-shoppers-about-their-sexual-health-data/3952472/ The NY Times loves helping racist villains like Christopher Rufo disingenuously smear people, even if it means breaking their own reporting standards. This time, they're helping smear NYC Mayoral candidate Mamdani: https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1942057201327353964 Linda Yaccarino, former CEO of X, is calling it quits. Elon gave her a frosty goodbye and took away her blue check: https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/09/xs-ad-business-improved-under-departing-ceo-linda-yaccarino-but-its-still-tough-times-ahead/ If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1h 15m
8 JUL

Candace Owens Wants You to Think She’s Changed. She Hasn’t.

What is behind Candace Owens’ rebrand? Bridget explains Owens’ new playbook to Anney and Sam over at the podcast Stuff Mom Never Told You. If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

59 min
4 JUL

Princess Treatment is Going Viral on TikTok, But at What Cost!? (A rant)

TikTok’s “Princess Treatment” trend has gone viral, and so has Bridget's response. It started with creator Courtney Joelle, whose videos depict how she sits silently at restaurants while her husband orders for her, speaks for her, and calls it “being a princess.” Millions of views later, Bridget wonders: is this soft girl femininity… or something more dangerous? Check out Bridget’s viral TikTok response, which got SO MANY MORE VIEWS than her other videos, even though those other videos take WAY longer to produce. It's clear what the algorithm wants! https://www.tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc/video/7520108357177330975 If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected] Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

33 min
2 JUL

#SkinnyTok Was Banned from TikTok. So Why Is It Still Everywhere?

Welcome to #SkinnyTok — a corner of TikTok where extreme thinness is framed as “discipline,” wellness becomes control, and disordered eating is dressed up as aesthetic. Even though TikTok banned the hashtag and popular creators like Liv Schmidt , the content hasn’t disappeared, it’s just gotten harder to spot. In this episode, journalist Kat Tenbarge joins us to unpack how TikTok’s design glorifies harmful beauty standards and quietly funnels users — especially women and girls — toward content that can distort how we see our bodies and ourselves. She explains why simply banning it doesn't work, and how creators are effectively pushing back to confront it head-on. Read more: Eating Disorder Content Is Infiltrating TikTok. Some Creators Are Going Viral Debunking It – by Kat Tenbarge, Wired Follow Kat’s work at Spitfire News: https://spitfirenews.com/ 💜 Struggling or need support? Visit The Project HEAL If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

46 min
28 JUN

Jeff Bezos’ tacky wedding; RFK Jr. hawks wearables; Racist AI TikToks; Minnesota murderer's data brokers; AI bands on Spotify; BarbieGPT – NEWS ROUNDUP!

This week, Bridget is joined by Producer Mike to break down the tech stories you might have missed. Weird AI-generated videos depicting Black women in racist tropes and stereotypes are suddenly showing up in our feeds. Bridget provides an update on how the videos have rapidly evolved even since Tuesday's deep-dive episode on the topic: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tiktok-minstrel-shows-are-mocking-black-women-using/id1520715907?i=1000714408197 A band that seems to have been created by AI has hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners on Spotify. Who is behind it? This rabbit hole goes deep: https://musically.com/2025/06/26/velvet-sundown-are-a-seemingly-ai-generated-band-with-325k-spotify-listeners/ RFK Jr is a reckless liar who is destroying our health system, but he'd rather talk about wearable devices: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-science-health-purge/ The man who murdered Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman seems to have used data brokers to find her address. Americans should demandA list of legal-but-sketchy brokers: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25977763-1-1/ Mattel struck a deal with OpenAI to explore fun, not at all dangerous ways to put AI in children's toys. This prototype looks particularly promising: https://www.tiktok.com/@filmsmtvofficial/video/7154710464696438043 Conspirituality podcast on MAHA: https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/259-maha-is-project-2025-trojan-horse Our TANGOTI episode about data shady brokers: https://podcasts.apple.com/ye/podcast/doxxing-101-our-personal-information-is-available-online/id1520715907?i=1000577153294 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1h 9m
24 JUN

TikTok Minstrel Shows Are Mocking Black Women Using Digital Blackface

Have you seen this wave of racist over the top AI generated videos featuring Black women on TikTok? Since the release of Google’s VEO3 AI video generation platform in May, which allows users to create realistic videos from text prompts, there has been a wave of viral AI generated videos on TikTok depicting Black women using racist stereotypes and tropes. Although the first videos were made with good intentions, their popularity has sparked copycat creators to recreate more and more extreme versions. Just like 19th-century minstrel shows reinforced a political and social climate hostile to Black people, today’s AI-driven content is being used by some to affirm a similarly hostile climate toward Black women, and prop up a political and economic system that benefits others at their expense. Bridget studied minstrel shows in grad school, and has a lot to say about these videos that are essentially white supremacist propaganda masquerading as entertainment. The original, not-so-bad, actually-clever video from account AI Clapback King: https://www.tiktok.com/@aiformobile/video/7512729952618286378 Conference talk about Black representation in AI, posted by AI Clapback King: https://www.tiktok.com/@aiformobile/video/7517712586712812814?_t=ZP-8xQFrwYvZqY&_r=1 EXAMPLE - Increasingly violent, decreasingly funny iteration of the original Karen video: https://www.tiktok.com/@hubbabubbablast400/video/7516178273047498015?_r=1&_t=ZP-8xQIaauZ0LX EXAMPLE - Big Foot (2 million views): https://www.tiktok.com/@femalebigfoot/video/7514190146695154987?_r=1&_t=ZP-8xQUzlvCtqQ EXAMPLE - Slave Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cottonvlogsss/video/7514846240031444254?_r=1&_t=ZP-8xQV5CnNAQI If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at [email protected]! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

58 min
20 JUN

How Dating Apps Are Failing Black Women | IRL: Online Life is Real Life

Dating apps aren’t broken; they’re working exactly as designed. And for Black women, that’s a problem. In this season premiere of IRL: Online Life is Real Life, host Bridget dives into how dating apps reinforce harmful beauty standards rooted in whiteness, automating what researcher Dr. Apryl Williams calls “sexual racism” into the user experience. This is the first episode in a four-part series from Mozilla and PRX exploring how tech shapes our most personal decisions. Subscribe now to catch every episode: irlpodcast.org See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

25 min

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Bridget Todd

Host

Marginalized voices have always been at the forefront of the internet, yet our stories often go overlooked. Bridget Todd chronicles our experiences online, and the ways marginalized voices have shaped the internet from the very beginning. We need monuments to all of the identities that make being online what it is. So let’s build them.

Channel

Outspoken
Creator

iHeartPodcasts
Years Active

2020 - 2025
Episodes

325
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

2025 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia
Show Website

There Are No Girls on the Internet