00:01:54.720okay so you think abc knew about this too don't you i think they had to have right people talk
00:02:03.360about the background checks that abc is doing on their contestants there's no way they didn't know
00:02:07.080i remember when they chose frank chose her as the bachelorette i thought that it was a really
00:02:12.460interesting choice given the scandal but i think they chose it because of the scandal because
00:02:16.380controversial people get more views and abc is all about making money and so it's it's kind of
00:02:22.540funny that it backfired on them that it got too they went too far she's too controversial this is
00:02:27.440too much she saw people on the left and the right coming together and agreeing hey this is terrible
00:02:32.380and ultimately the show was pulled yeah which that hardly ever happens uh i wonder how much
00:02:38.960they spent on production costs because they made it through the entire season of filming didn't they
00:02:44.740That's what I understand, and people who have gone and looked at it say that they spent at least $2 million on the season.
00:02:50.220I don't know how these budgets work. I don't know anything about The Bachelorette or ABC or what they do.
00:02:54.480I just know that they're flying around usually to locations, sometimes leaving the country.
00:02:59.580I mean, it's not something that's cheap. It's a big show that's been going on for so many seasons.
00:03:04.080I'm really curious to see what they try to do next.
00:03:06.120A lot of people were saying maybe they'll try to redo the season, maybe the show will be over forever.
00:03:10.300The entire situation is just completely absurd and ridiculous.
00:03:13.900And again, they could have chose someone else to do this show.
00:03:18.280They could have chose someone who is high profile, has a lot of followers, but is not in a video potentially abusing their own children, their partner, whatever.
00:03:28.800Millions of options they could have picked and they didn't do that.
00:03:31.960Yeah, I've never really understood the lore of Taylor Frankie Paul.
00:03:36.560Forgive me for not really thinking she's a good bachelorette contestant.
00:03:40.380She has, I think, three kids with two dads, one marriage.
00:03:43.900The whole mom talk thing where I think her and her husband and her friend group were
00:03:49.260accused of like, actually they admitted to being soft swingers, which I think basically
00:03:53.660is where you partner swap within the friend group.
00:12:30.600I feel like we live in this very influencer-driven society and culture,
00:12:36.780certainly more now than at any point in history,
00:12:39.560given the access on social media, different things,
00:12:42.460and I think the people's willingness, influencers' willingness to share their lives.
00:12:47.300I think in the case of Taylor Frankie Paul, sometimes these deeply personal kind of chaotic
00:12:52.500things that you probably shouldn't be sharing to your millions of followers. But it seems we have
00:12:57.140so many, I think, especially young women who develop these almost parasocial relationships
00:13:03.060with influencers. Is that something you feel like you've noticed?
00:13:08.060Well, definitely. I think a recent event to tie that into is, I don't know if you saw this,
00:13:13.020but zendaya got married right so yeah at some point behind closed doors and there were so many
00:13:18.320people online who felt personally upset that they didn't know she was married didn't have access to
00:13:23.840pictures of her wedding you do not know her you you're not friends you've never met in person
00:13:29.600there's this entitlement to other people's lives simply because they're either more visible or
00:13:35.100choose to post online about other things you're not entitled to information on people's personal
00:13:40.320lives and even political views i don't know if you like this continues to happen time and time
00:13:45.040again where people are canceling influencers that post content that have nothing to do with
00:13:49.360politics insisting to know their political opinions and when they find out that those
00:13:53.840opinions are not what exactly matches theirs they're quick to unfollow they're quick to say
00:13:59.360this person's a horrible person when they only followed them for a specific niche that has
00:14:04.240nothing to do with politics and so there's this again this entitlement of access to everyone's
00:14:09.760everything. And when you don't get that, people go crazy, which it's really disturbing. And I think
00:14:15.880we are at a really interesting time in the world where I don't know what the long-term effects of
00:14:20.540this are. I don't know how much worse it's going to get. And I don't really know what the solution
00:14:24.760is necessarily to fix it. I mean, we can't just ban social media. We can't de-platform anyone.
00:14:29.680So it's a really difficult situation and people are definitely getting a little bit deranged over
00:14:35.080it yeah i would certainly say so um i love tom holland and zendaya i think their marriage is
00:14:41.380so sweet their relationship has been so sweet um but derange is a good word and when talking about
00:14:46.460these parasocial relationships i think of sydney sweeney who was selling like her bath water and
00:14:52.600you have creeps lining up miles long to be able to access this and purchase this because they feel
00:15:00.340like they know her it's the most bizarre thing ever and i remember too when all the ice stuff
00:15:06.700was happening in minnesota specifically it was alex earl which i like her she's chaotic she's fun
00:15:12.480i follow all of her stuff i watch all of her videos she's very entertaining
00:15:16.200if you were going through her comments everyone was demanding that she spoke about ice which
00:15:21.640i don't believe she ever did when an influencer does that do you think that means secretly
00:15:28.540that they're conservative? You know, that's something I think a lot of people automatically
00:15:34.340jump to the conclusion of. I think it means, yeah, they probably lean that way, or they're
00:15:39.000simply just a common sense, independent thinking person that's not overly involved with political
00:15:45.020things, right? It used to be that if someone's not making commentary on politics, that it just
00:15:50.820means like, yeah, they'll probably go vote for the president and kind of lean one way or the other
00:15:54.840every four years and not think day to day about these things but now because of this you know
00:16:01.420this hyper polarization people are automatically assuming you need to be fully aligned one way or
00:16:05.940the other um i imagine alex earl maybe probably leans our way a little bit i think so too
00:16:13.180but i don't think she has strong viewpoints maybe like the way you and i do and i think that's okay
00:16:19.980i think she can be an influencer i think she can be posting her content and i don't think anyone
00:16:24.860should ever demand anything from her politically and i think you and i if she made a statement
00:16:30.780tomorrow saying hey i supported kamala harris in 2024 i don't necessarily think it would change
00:16:35.820what we both view her content as for either of us and i think that's kind of how it should be and i
00:16:40.860wish we could go back to sort of allowing people to do that and make their own decisions and not
00:16:45.580affect her content. Now, if she started posting about, you know, Democrat policies and stuff,
00:16:50.380we probably wouldn't want to consume her content. But if she came out and said that
00:16:53.840and posted what she did, I don't know, maybe I wouldn't change my views on
00:16:57.680how I consume her content. No, I absolutely agree with that. I would still watch her stuff too.
00:17:04.500But in speaking about, I guess, you personally, obviously, having kind of been immersed in the
00:17:11.600political sphere do you feel like you ever get political fatigue if you will oh definitely this
00:17:19.940is something um i've been reflecting on a lot in the last really several months and i i think you
00:17:25.900probably will agree with some of these things i think what happened to us and a lot of the other
00:17:30.740women who sort of came up on the issue that we both worked a little bit of your background very
00:17:35.840quickly too. Yes. Yeah. So everyone obviously knows Riley Gaines and her story, but I was
00:17:43.280teammates with the wonderful man, Leah Thomas, that Riley was forced to compete against at the
00:17:48.760NCAA championship. And so just talking about how it's unfair for a man to be in our locker room
00:17:53.520and on our sports team, but also I talked a lot about the censorship I faced from my university,
00:17:57.920from my conference and not speaking about how we thought it was unfair. So that's a quick
00:18:03.300background but really what I've thought and I think same thing probably goes for you is I never
00:18:10.140once wanted to be a person who grew up talking about politics like you and I probably voted
00:18:16.140had political opinions as we should but never once imagined this would be more than something you do
00:18:21.900when you're behind the closed door voting in the voting booth every four years every four years or
00:18:27.600or in local elections, whatever it might be. But because of this horrible leftist policy and
00:18:35.140basically framing of everything, we were forced to talk about politics, right?
00:18:40.620Their terrible policy decision making and whatever's going on in that camp that said,
00:18:45.820hey, a six foot four tall man can actually be a woman athlete forced us to talk about politics.
00:18:52.000And so I think in a weird way, yeah, people have fatigue because not just on our issue,
00:18:56.940on a lot of issues certain people who had no you know desire to be in the political world were
00:19:04.380forced into it and i'm not saying that i regret speaking out or and i mean you absolutely don't
00:19:09.940either but do you know kind of what i'm saying like we were forced into speaking about this
00:19:14.720because they were so extreme because they were so radical because they pushed everyday average
00:19:20.380americans that never once needed to join this fight pushed us into it and so in that way yeah
00:19:25.100it feels exhausting. It's so true. I feel like it takes a certain type of person, whether it's to
00:19:31.660sit behind a camera with lights in your face, whether it's to, you know, be on a house floor
00:19:37.480of some, you know, state capital or even in Washington, D.C. It takes a special kind of
00:19:42.580person to want to do that or to be privy to it or to be natural at it. Of course, not every single
00:19:48.040person would thrive and succeed in that setting and that was not me like i was not that person
00:19:55.880even still quite frankly like it's not overly natural for me to do those things and so i
00:20:00.700absolutely agree with you and i think too the issue of men and women's sports i don't have
00:20:05.440anything new or profound even to say nothing that's overly wise it's unfair it's unsafe
00:20:13.780it's wrong we've been having this discussion for i mean speaking personally what nearly four years
00:20:19.900now i just don't even have anything new to add it's like beating a dead horse if we can't move
00:20:24.740the needle it does like i i certainly feel the fatigue as well and i think especially with
00:20:29.980the issues that circulate online now whether that be the constant incessant need to create
00:20:37.180these conspiracy theories and these totally outlandish things on an array of topics whether
00:20:42.660it be the bad actors that are constantly platformed people like nick fuentes whether it's
00:20:48.260uh what's going on in the middle east and foreign policy which truthfully i didn't know a lot about
00:20:55.620even still i would say i have a very very entry-level understanding there and i'm not going
00:21:00.100to act like i don't the political fatigue is certainly there but i guess in talking about
00:21:06.420kind of the middle east and and what's going on there one of the conversations that has been
00:21:12.340online is this obsession with israel it's beyond me honestly i don't understand it i don't get it
00:21:19.620people comment on my posts all the time saying you know you got you must have been paid seven
00:21:24.580thousand dollars the post to post this like really by who like i just it doesn't i don't even
00:21:29.380understand what they're saying okay i wanted to get your gauge as another gen z-er on the topic of
00:21:36.980israel like do you think this is an issue that young people care about or do you think this is
00:21:40.660mostly like online discussion yeah that's a thing this is an interesting thing that always comes up
00:21:47.920whenever you talk about the political realm which wasn't the case when we first started in this
00:21:52.440political world right like this was never something that ever was a big topic um my take on it is just
00:21:58.720it's a foreign policy issue which again i don't know a lot about my take is that i i'm kind of
00:22:07.480tired of hearing about it and this kind of goes maybe both ways it's it's really interesting that
00:22:12.900this just keeps coming up into conversation and I think both sides of this issue have in common
00:22:18.420that they can't stop talking about it right like even people who obviously I don't support Hamas
00:22:23.620I don't support you know that horrible situation going on and any conflict really but I don't I
00:22:30.760don't know anything I'm not getting briefed I don't work in the White House but there's this
00:22:34.620pressure for sort of young people to know about what's going on in foreign countries. I actually
00:22:41.540I'm a dual citizen and maybe I'm going to get canceled now by these people who are saying
00:22:45.460anyone who's not just 100% American is a horrible person, which we see online. And I still don't
00:22:50.920fully understand the conflict going on. I'm a Taiwanese citizen for context for people.
00:22:55.280And I don't fully understand and grasp a lot of the things that go on over there with Taiwan and
00:22:59.640China. I know a lot. I know probably more than the average American, but I don't know everything.
00:23:04.620And I'm not going to try to sit here and say I'm a 26-year-old that has all the answers.
00:23:09.960And so it's really unfortunate, again, maybe you feel this way, that you have pressure maybe to
00:23:13.940comment on something you don't necessarily know about. And there's a lot of people going on
00:23:18.300online that are just saying things that they don't know anything about. They're not the
00:23:22.420president. They're not working in the White House. They're just saying whatever comes to mind.
00:23:27.000Yeah, transparently, I think with the platform that I have been blessed with, with millions of
00:23:33.040followers on X and TikTok and Instagram, I almost put pressure on myself to say something, right?
00:23:38.460Like people are looking for me. And actually, Ali Bestucki came on the show a few weeks ago,
00:23:42.500and we talked about this, where that pressure, you're putting it on you. I had to like take a
00:23:49.580step back and realize no one, Riley, is coming to you for their thoughts on Iran. Nobody. And
00:23:55.200you're insane if you think it. But I think it just comes with the platform, I guess.
00:24:01.100so what issues is it do you think that young people care about right now i think the biggest
00:24:07.700thing and again also we're the same age so chime in too um is really just what's going on at home
00:24:14.820i think affordability i think something i look at is the number of kids that are not feeling
00:24:20.600independence from their parents right there's sort of before it used to be you move out when
00:24:25.320you're 18 maybe a little bit after that and then you sort of break away you get married you start
00:24:29.700of family, I'm looking at people who are my age, people who are even a little bit older,
00:24:34.100they're still maybe in their mid-30s, unmarried, living at home. And it's not because of failure
00:24:39.540of that person. It's because of the system now where you can't afford houses at the same price.
00:24:45.980The job markets are different. The base salary pay you have with inflation doesn't go as far.
00:24:51.680And I think that that's really what young people are feeling pressure. And so when we talk about
00:24:55.820foreign issues, there's a lot of fatigue because they're just saying, well, my day-to-day life is
00:24:59.900that I can't afford things the way my parents could. I can't have a house the same time my
00:25:05.400parents did when they were my age. And I really think that that's the root of all of it. And
00:25:10.220again, that's really what it all comes down to for young people. I don't think there's really
00:25:14.180anything else people think of. And when people talk about elections and number one issues,
00:25:20.300the thing that always comes up is really affordability. And I think, again, that continues
00:25:25.040to show and that's what i continue to see people talking about and complaining about and anything
00:25:29.760else that they're secondary thinking about is uh just trickle down from really that issue which is
00:25:35.440why when people promise free things it's so appealing it's so incentivizing you want to get
00:25:40.960out and vote for that person one of those people being mom donnie as you alluded to you live in new
00:25:45.760york city how is that going have you seen any major shift over the past few months i should
00:25:52.240should have taken a picture of this and sent it to you guys it's really funny because every bus
00:25:57.300has on the side of the bus it's not like what line it is it says fare is not free or some wording of
00:26:04.120that to remind people that even though mom donnie ran on the bus is being free you still very much
00:26:09.500do have to pay for the bus in new york city it is the funniest thing that you see every bus you pass
00:26:14.860by in new york so that's the one quick funny aside um yeah i mean we saw disasters with the snow
00:26:21.180storms uh that was a really big thing were these disgusting snow banks where um if you wanted to
00:26:27.120diet on any given day i recommend actually just walking out into the snow banks looking at the
00:26:32.360heroin needles uh trash uh you could see urine i hope they're from dogs but you never know
00:26:38.920just disgusting things in these snow banks that just stayed there for weeks crowded the sidewalk
00:26:44.240uh we were talking about this before i'll share this story quickly actually a friend get robbed
00:26:49.900because of the snowbank situation he was a couple doors away from home and these three guys approached
00:26:55.680him and he couldn't get around them because of this massive snowbank so he was sort of forced
00:27:00.180to engage with them and they ended up stealing his nice watch he was able to get away safe and
00:27:04.900sound and obviously went to the police and the police told him that these people have been had
00:27:09.720been doing it all through the winter so they really took advantage of the snowbank situation
00:27:13.900and of course the cops weren't able to do anything because conveniently the cameras on all the
00:27:18.780corners were not available and didn't get any clear image, which no surprise, if you report
00:27:24.800crime, oftentimes nothing happens. So I've heard that. I've seen more crazy people on the subways.
00:27:32.220I don't know. I mean, it's still early on. It's probably going to get worse. I'm just glad that
00:27:36.800we're coming into spring now where at least the snowbank situation is going to be obviously
00:27:41.560better. There's no more of that. So that is my one positive coming into summer.
00:27:45.780Have you noticed kind of like a mass exodus from places like New York, maybe even in the city to more conservative parts of the country, especially with taxes being increased in the city?
00:28:00.240Yeah, well, I'm sure you could probably talk about how your Nashville, Tennessee area is becoming overpopulated.
00:28:07.440I mean, yeah, it's pretty much every week we're having a go away party.
00:28:10.620I'm hearing Tennessee, Florida, I have so many friends that have moved to Florida. And I'm happy
00:28:16.560they moved to Florida because I have a place to go visit them. And I think it's probably going to
00:28:20.100be pretty soon when I go and join them. Because yeah, I don't know how much more we're going to
00:28:24.940be able to take here. But again, it's hard for me personally, because I have my family all in this
00:28:31.300area. And that's sort of why I'm here. It's great to be close to family. I really value that. And
00:28:37.360it's really, really hard. Of course, New York was always left-leaning, but this is too far,
00:28:42.620right? I could deal with maybe a sort of maybe Democrat lean place, but a place that's saying,
00:28:47.900hey, the buses are going to be free. Here's all of this stuff that you can't do. Increasing taxes
00:28:53.280and giving us nothing in return. A lot of people don't appeal to that. Yeah. Yeah. No, Tennessee,
00:28:59.880very much. We have felt the weight of people from California. I mean, you name the blue state,
00:29:06.500Even corporations. There's a big Facebook headquarters now in my hometown. In-N-Out has moved their headquarters to Nashville. Starbucks just announced that they're leaving Seattle, which is pretty crazy after a big tax bill was passed to come to Nashville.
00:29:21.440So certainly we are feeling it, which is of course good for the economy, but we don't have the infrastructure really to be able to support that, unfortunately.
00:29:35.220And so roads and traffic and school even, oh my gosh, my little sister's school, there's maybe 1,600 kids in this school and it's not a school that can support that.
00:29:47.420they're building those townhomes and condos and apartments everywhere down here and so i have a
00:29:53.440feeling that it's only going to get more crowded and more expensive and you have to predict it will
00:30:00.460only get more blue which that's the part that really kills me so we will see what the future
00:30:07.880looks like uh well paula you rock i always appreciate you coming on so thank you very very
00:30:13.240much. Thank you. Thank you guys for tuning into the Riley Gaines show. Be sure to follow us here
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