Rehash

Rehash

Rehash: The podcast about the social media phenomenons that strike a nerve in our culture, only to be quickly forgotten - but we think are due for a revisiting. Hosted by Maia (Broey Deschanel) and Hannah Raine Find us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast

  1. Hacktivism

    4 DAYS AGO

    Hacktivism

    Call them what you will: hactivists, cypherpunks, phone phreaks, e-bandits… these digital vigilantes may be the last bastions of hope in an Information Age where information is not dispersed equally. Growing from a group of pranksters at MIT in the 50s to the “ultra-coordinated mother-f*ckery” of Anonymous and WikiLeaks today, hactivism uses information technologies to achieve political objectives. With their hyper-sophisticated coding skills, hacktivists do everything from leaking classified documents, to providing oppressed citizenry with military grade encryption. They believe that access to computers should be total, that information should be free, and that anarchy reigns supreme. But ever since Chelsea Manning was discovered smuggling over 400k U.S military documents in a Lady Gaga CD case on behalf of WikiLeaks and governments really began cracking down on these hackers, it became clear that maybe the internet wasn’t the anarchic utopia we thought it was. Tangents include: Maia’s primal hatred of Spotify wrapped, The internet’s unfounded hatred of Geese, and Hannah’s dream of putting Maia on WikiFeet. Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠ Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: ⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic SOURCES: Maya Jasanoff, “Revenge of the Quiet American,” Foreign Policy, No. 185 (March/April 2011). Steven Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, O’Reilley (1984). Peter Ludlow, “WikiLeaks and Hacktivist Culture,” The Nation (2010). Ty McCormick, “Anthropology of An Idea: Hacktivism,” Foreign Policy, No. 200 (2013). Alasdair Roberts, “The WikiLeaks Illusion,” The Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 3 (SUMMER 2011). Wendy H. Wong and Peter A. Brown, “E-Bandits in Global Activism: WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and the Politics of No One,” Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 11, No. 4 (December 2013). Our Sponsors: * Check out Mood and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://mood.com * Check out Quince: https://quince.com/REHASH Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

    55 min
  2. 8 DEC

    Memes

    “Oi Mista! You me dad?” …The evocative phrase heard around the world thanks to a beautiful little thing called memes. As per one definition by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, the meme is a unit of cultural transmission that can be perpetuated and remixed for all eternity. These nifty visual soundbites have been around forever, but really took form in the Darwinian halls of 4chan. Evolving from image macro, to utopian “open work,” to hate symbol, to ironic shitpost where no object of consumption is sacred (not even Joan Didion… or Geese), the meme has become the true darling of our internet age. In this episode, Hannah and Maia question the purpose of the meme - is it an object of benign humour, a piece of art, a tool for bespoke branding, or a malignant “selfish” gene that has the capacity for great evil? Listen to find out. Tangents include: the Timothy vogue cover, and Hannah’s one-sided beef with Goth Shakira.  Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠ Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: ⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic SOURCES: Alexis Benveniste, “The Meaning and History of Memes,” The New York Times (2022). Susan Blackmore, The Meme Machine, Oxford University Press (1999). Roy Christopher, “The Meme is Dead, Long Live the Meme,” Post Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production, Punctum Books (2019). Travis Diehl, “The Many, Many Heads of JD Vance,” Spike Art Magazine (2025). Tom Gerken, “Is this 1921 cartoon the first ever meme?” BBC (2018). Ara H. Merjian and Mike Rugnetta, “From Dada to Memes,” Art News (2020). Scott Wark and McKenzie Wark, “Circulation and its Discontents,”  Post Memes: Seizing the Memes of Production, Punctum Books (2019). Olivia Whittick, “Feminist Meme Queen Goth Shakira,” Ssense. Our Sponsors: * Check out Mood and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://mood.com * Check out Quince: https://quince.com/REHASH Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

    1h 3m
  3. AI Boyfriends (ft. Internet Anthropology)

    24 NOV

    AI Boyfriends (ft. Internet Anthropology)

    Isn’t it so annoying when your partner can’t be therapist, lover, parent, and nutritionist all at once? Enter…ChatGPT! After a somewhat inflammatory study released by the nonsecular, ultra-conservative Wheatley Institute found that 1 in 3 young adult men and 1 in 4 young adult women reported having chatted with an AI boyfriend or girlfriend, the think pieces started rolling. And while these numbers might be a little funky, it is true that people in at least the tens of thousands are engaging in romantic and sexual partnerships with their AI chatbots. In this episode, Hannah and Maia, joined by Carrera from Internet Anthropology, scour the r/MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit to glimpse into the psychology of such people and ask some pressing questions. Are we dating AI because we’re tired of men? Because of covid and our increasing comfort with never being touched? Because the attention economy has made up gluttonous for constant validation? It would be cruel to demonize these people, but when a simple software update can kill your boyfriend in the blink of an eye and chatbots called Daenerys Targaryen are pushing lovesick children towards self harm, you’ve gotta wonder whether these AI companies are actually trying to solve the loneliness epidemic, or worsen it. Tangents include: Maia’s mysterious allergies and drinking culture in the UK.  Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠ Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: ⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic SOURCES: “COUNTERFEIT CONNECTIONS: The Rise of Romantic AI Companions and AI Sexualized Media Among the Rising Generation,” Wheatley Institute (2025). Cathy Hackl, “Confessions Of A Futurist: I Dated Four AI Boyfriends To Explore The Future Of Dating, Love, And Intimacy,” Forbes (2025). Kashmir Hill, “She Is in Love With ChatGPT,” New York Times (2025). Carrera Kurnick, “Internet Artifacts on Digital Companionship,” Internet Anthropologist (2025). Kevin Roose, “Can A.I. Be Blamed for a Teen’s Suicide?,” The New York Times (2025). Slavoj Žižek, For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor, 2nded. (New York: Verso, 2002). Our Sponsors: * Check out Mood and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://mood.com * Check out Quince: https://quince.com/REHASH Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

    1h 21m
  4. Creeping

    10 NOV

    Creeping

    There is no greater candidate for a job with the FBI… than a woman with a crush. A recent study found that Gen Z and Millennials have “alarmingly relaxed attitudes towards online stalking.” But considering we all do it…why wouldn’t we? The term “stalking” (also know as “creeping” or “lurking”) has now take on a colloquial form, as all sorts of people use the internet to gather information about other people: ex partners, future partners, the ex of an ex, prospective employees, people they think are hotter or cooler than they are. But even if “creeping” is not stalking in the technical sense, even if it’s something we all do, why are we so ashamed to do it? In this season premiere, Hannah and Maia ask whether creeping is inherently creepy, and discuss the different affordances of social media that make it the perfect breeding ground for nosiness. As these “mass personal” channels of communication facilitate parasocial relationships of even the closest kind, have we become private celebrities to each other? Or are we all, as we always have been, just massive creeps? Tangents include: Maia’s evil ex-landlord, Hannah’s sorely misunderstood Baby Jane halloween costume, and dramatic readings of some truly diabolical “creeping” anecdotes from the lovely listeners.  Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠ Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: ⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic SOURCES: Amelia Abraham, “12 People Admit To Their Social Media ‘Stalking’ Habits,” Refinery29 (2016). “CMV: It's not "creeping", "snooping", or "being a creeper" to browse social media content that presumably was put there for exactly that purpose.,” Reddit (2015). Frampton, J. R., & Fox, J, “Monitoring, Creeping, or Surveillance? A Synthesis of Online Social Information Seeking Concepts,” Review of Communication Research, 9, (2021). “Gen Z and Millennials Accept Online Creeping and Stalking as Part of Dating Culture,” GEN Digital (2023). Laura Pitcher, “Are You in a Parasocial Relationship With ‘the Other Woman?’” Digiverse (2023). Morgan Sullivan, “A Love Letter to All My Exes’ Exes’ Instagram Accounts,” The Cut (2022). Our Sponsors: * Check out Mood and use my code REHASH for a great deal: https://mood.com * Check out Quince: https://quince.com/REHASH Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

    1h 2m

About

Rehash: The podcast about the social media phenomenons that strike a nerve in our culture, only to be quickly forgotten - but we think are due for a revisiting. Hosted by Maia (Broey Deschanel) and Hannah Raine Find us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast

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