89 episodes
Wow If True Isabel J. Kim & Amanda Silberling
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5.0 • 46 Ratings
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Wow If True is your one-stop internet culture shop, hosted by meme sommeliers and real-life besties: tech journalist Amanda Silberling and terminally-online attorney Isabel J. Kim. We dig into what, where, and how something's going viral, and why what’s happening online matters in real life. New episodes every other Wednesday.
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89: Isabel got a book deal!
Isabel got a seven figure book deal and got the book optioned, but she continues to threaten to kill people on our podcast (especially the kid in the Omelas hole). No, this is not a bit. Iz is god's favorite princess, and Amanda can run a mile without stopping.
Links
Isabel's book deal announcement!
The story about killing the kid in the Omelas hole
Most importantly... NEW MERCH! Get your very own shirt/mug that says "I listened to Wow If True before Isabel J. Kim got a seven figure book deal." This merch is very funny and good.
Find Us Online
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wowiftrue
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue
Website: https://wowiftrue.com/
Email: wowiftruepod@gmail.com
About Us
Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our music is by Sam Rizer, our cover art is by Eric Silver, and our production is by Allison Mills and David Newtown.
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88: How we learned about handwashing
The history of handwashing? It's way wilder than you think.
Isabel is once again out of the country and/or concussed, which means Amanda is joined by her friends Caro and Andrea to talk about everyone's favorite 19th century handwashing accelerationist, Ignac Semmelweis. What does this have to do with the internet? Well, if you're going to go outside and touch grass (preferably while listening to this podcast), you're going to need to wash your hands when you come back inside.
TW: medical gore, death, dissection, infection, drugs
Find Us Online
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue
Website: https://wowiftrue.com/
Email: wowiftruepod@gmail.com
About Us
Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our music is by Sam Rizer, our cover art is by Eric Silver, and our production is by Allison Mills and David Newtown. -
87: Do you think MrBeast is happy?
The most successful internet creator of all time is a guy named Jimmy who locks people in grocery stores for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like him or not, MrBeast is such a fascinating figure in pop culture that we have become MrBeast anthropologists. Beastly scholars. Why do people like MrBeast so much? How does MrBeast (and the prizewinners in his videos) fit into the narrative of the American Dream, and how will that be exaggerated now that he has his own TV show? Is he even happy? And more urgently, is his chocolate any good?
Links
MrBeast's Squid Game and the price of viral stunts
The new American Dream is to get MrBeast to pay off your debt
Find Us Online
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wowiftrue
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wowiftrue
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wowiftrue
Website: https://wowiftrue.com/
Email: wowiftruepod@gmail.com
About Us
Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our music is by Sam Rizer, our cover art is by Eric Silver, and our production is by Allison Mills and David Newtown. -
85: Wow if Two
In this episode, we discuss the only thing congress can agree upon: yeeting Tiktok into the sun and away from the hands of America's youth. Also, the Iditarod and how to properly gut a moose, crypto perfume (question for the audience: what do YOU think crypto smells like?), and the mandatory Kate Middleton AI photograph discussion. Never say we're not on trend.
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84: Marianne Williamson Beef (ft. Organizer Memes)
The sequel to Organizer Memes. It's throwback....Wednesday, and Organizer Memes is here talking with Amanda about memes and political organizing, three years later. Time is a flat circle. Joe Biden is running for president again (but this time, with meme merch). Speaking of meme merch, we've got a new portable hole mug. WOTC please no suing.
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83: Communism or incompetence
In this episode: Isabel explains why she is glad she didn't win a Hugo this year (hint: there's niche community drama), Amanda gets philosophical about the Taylor Swift deepfake debacle and pisses off tech CEOs again, and all of us collectively ooh and aah at the miracle of brumation.
Did we mention we have merch? And a Patreon?
Customer Reviews
I don’t belong here
I am a boring millennial with no business getting famous on the Internet but I sure love this podcast. Amanda and Isabel are so infectious (in the good way) and I can’t get enough of them!
shallow, omits key information
I was excited when this podcast was recommended to me because I am extremely online and love thoughtful discussion of the internet and culture, and a cohost with a law degree seemed especially promising for bringing a new perspective. I started with the Bad Art Friend episode as a litmus test since that’s a story I am quite familiar with, especially as a disabled person who witnessed and experienced the vicious ableist attacks and harassment that particular discourse inspired. Unfortunately, the episode was strikingly shallow and almost offensive in its flippancy. The interaction and intersection between disability, race, and class are essential to what I would consider a decent recap of this event, but the hosts only talk about race and didn’t discuss the other two at all. While they talk about race in the summary of the story and in personal context, they erase the real world harassment against disabled people, including non-white disabled people, that the week+ of discourse about this topic created. “Why did this go viral?” they ask repeatedly, and conclude it made people feel good, ignoring that it stayed viral multiple days because the discourse shifted towards ableist harassment!!! Any summary of an event that leaves out the significant harassment it sparks is incomplete and perhaps even harmful. I unsubscribed as quickly as I had subscribed when it was recommended—a podcast that omits harm to marginalized people on the internet isn’t for me, and I won’t be recommending it to others.
Wow Is True!
Craig here. I don’t come out from under my rock much (evidence: Apple Podcasts) but when I do, Isabel and Amanda always have new blorbos to show me. I appreciate how Isabel routinely brings up D