We're back for the new year, joined by pop culture writer + narrative strategist Eteng Ettah to create a bingo card for the cursed events of 2026 that likely await us. We apologize in advance, both for mentioning possible horrors like "MrBeast IPO" and "Caroline Ellison book deal," but also, because Amanda was at her parents' house and recorded on AirPods.

Links

Bingo cards! Get your bingo cards!!: https://www.wowiftrue.com/2026-bingo/ (... we talk more about how we "made" this on the Patreon)

Eteng's newsletter: https://www.etengettah.com/

Eteng's podcast: https://www.instagram.com/considercomfortpod/

Find Us Online

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.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 editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown (but this episode was edited by Julia. Schifini!). Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's holiday time! That means you get a stocking stuffer worth of an episode -- a handful of topics we wanna chitchat about but aren't big enough for their whole episode (Is this how stockings work? Amanda is writing this). So, tune in for: we didn't get 30 under 30 because we didn't do fraud; what do Elon Musk, Luigi Mangione, and Isabel J. Kim have in common; 'Extremely kidpilled' Sam Altman; random tangents about baseball?; and Amanda's embarrassing temptation to buy an AI wearable. Also Isabel is on a train at one point. But at no point do either of us do fraud.

If you're wondering, you can indeed hear the "secret sauce" on our Patreon.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We finally give Mr. Don't Die himself, Bryan Johnson, his own episode, on account of him doing some seminal college student activities. You know, like doing drugs while listening to a Grimes set.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

TW: we talk about suicide induced by ChatGPT and lawsuits related to these suicides in this episode!

We talk about the lawsuits that Social Media Victims Law Center brought against OpenAI and the ways in which ChatGPT and other AI products can super negatively impact mental health, to deeply worrying degrees. We also talk about the patterns in AI "chosen one" and "religion" narratives—have you heard the good word of Spiralism?

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We read a bunch of articles about the state of dating/dating apps and yes, THAT gooning article, and talked about them. It's like English class where you read a bunch of stuff and talk about it except you haven't done the reading!!! But you can do the reading. It's right here. This is the reading.

Reading

The Goon Squad (Harper's)

"But PornosexualGooner101 Died 35 Years Ago...This Very Night!" (The Chatner)

The Trouble With Wanting Men (NYT)

Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now? (Vogue)

Other Stuff

Follow-up interview w/ Goon Squad writer

Wait, people actually use Facebook Dating?

The best dating apps aren't even dating apps

Meet the goonettes

About Us

Wow If True was created by Isabel J. Kim and Amanda Silberling. Our editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Amanda went viral on Tiktok for having an AI pet. Really, this is the apex of our journey on this podcast. The Moflin is an AI-enabled pet that retails for $430 dollars, and Amanda has just spent a month living with it in her home. Also, we talk about Grimes' new music video. (Behind the scenes supplementary moflin content on Patreon!)

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're teaming up with Dr. Claire Aubin of our sibling show, This Guy Sucked, to talk about something that is not a guy, but does suck: the internet! It's easy to say that the internet sucks, but what makes it suck, how did it get this way, and how can we fix it? Using Cory Doctrow's new book "Enshittification" as a guide, we talk it out.

Find Us Online

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wowiftrue.bsky.social

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wowiftruepod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.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 editors are Allison Mills and David Newtown. Wow If True is a member of Multitude, a podcast collective, production studio and ad sales provider.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The news cycle of 2025 has somehow once again broken us so severely that we have simply just opted out and decided to talk about Silksong, a game that people waited so long for that they created a whole new genre of shitposting. Also, Undertale and Pokopia, the forthcoming game that makes us confront everything we've ever known about Ditto.

If you were hoping that we were going to talk about The News, check out the new episode of Close All Tabs! This is #notsponsored!

But we are #sponsored by Isabel's book which you can pre-order now.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.