The Kids Are Not Alright: The Legend of Curly's Gold

Part 2 of The Kids Are Not All Right traces youth in crisis through the digital era — the ’90s, 2000s, and 2010s. Chris and Des draw the line from 1992’s pickup-artist manuals and the heroin chic era to today’s incel forums, pro-ana Tumblr and the modern manosphere. Plus: Chris’s 30-year cycle theory, a story about an 11-year-old getting bullied online by a grown adult, and a closing question worth sitting with — is social media the next nuclear?====================Subscribe, watch and listen to I'm Not Even Supposed to Be Here Podcast====================🖥️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeHerePod📱 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/im-not-even-supposed-to-be-here-today/id1867373928🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3bypMpSmcoIjt4bHk0nvzz?si=18eab826d1394fd9====================Sponsored by Bearing 287 https://www.bearing287.com/====================#BeHerePod #NotEvenSupposedToBeHere #CulturalCommentaryhttps://substack.com/@chrisabevolo Timestamps:0:00 — Open2:00 — The Beef Season 2 10:30 — The ’90s: video games, pickup artists, riot grrrl, supermodels16:30 — Columbine and Woodstock ‘9922:00 — Chris’s 30-year cycle theory24:00 — The 2000s: MySpace, AOL chat rooms, Britney, BlackPlanet31:30 — The 2010s: smartphones, the manosphere, Instagram, Trayvon36:00 — Parenting in the smartphone era49:30 — Spencer Pratt for mayor, and the 21-year arc54:30 — Is social media the next nuclear?62:00 — What documentaries will they make about 2026?References:Riot Grrrl — BritannicaPro-ana — WikipediaManosphere origins — WikipediaSPLC: Pickup Artists and the Male Supremacist IndustryVideo vixen — WikipediaWoodstock '99 — WikipediaNew Statesman: Trainwreck Woodstock '99 reviewNetflix: Trainwreck Woodstock '99 documentaryColumbine effect — WikipediaResearchGate: Columbine Effect on Culture and Policy (Muschert)Jezebel: The Manosphere's Existential CrisisSemantic Scholar: From Pick-Up Artists to Incels (data study)Waterloo University: Tracing Radicalization to the Incel Movement (PDF)Washington Post: Framing Britney Spears documentaryThe Culture Sift: Britney, Paris, and Misogyny in the Early 2000sThe Conversation: ANTM Reality Check documentary reviewBuzzFeed: Former ANTM contestants' accountsMEFeater: Did Diary of a Video Vixen Influence #MeToo?Oxford Academic: We Tried to Tell Y'all — Black Twitter and Digital CounternarrativesGrinnell College: Pro-Ana as Subculture (sociology)NAMI: LGBTQ+ communities and mental healthSAGE Journals: Mainstreaming Manosphere Misogyny (peer-reviewed, 2024)CBC: Andrew Tate social media bans and ongoing reachSPLC: Andrew Tate profileNylon: Tumblr/TikTok eating disorder content and disguised wellness trendsVariety: Social Studies documentary (FX/Hulu, 2024)PBS NewsHour: Black Twitter: A People's History (Hulu, 2024)The Culture Crypt: Video Vixens in Hip-HopHRC: 2023 LGBTQ+ Youth ReportProduced by Julia Bevolo