PODCAST · society
I'M THE VILLAIN
by Isabel Knight & Deondre' Jones
Welcome to I'M THE VILLAIN, a podcast about 2 millennials trying to decode, deconstruct, and dismantle the world as we know it.The show is a conversational podcast where we talk about all the things that are fucked up about the status quo in America, with the perspective of the villain (Isabel) and hero (Deondre'). We talk about norms we think need to change in society, and talk with other millennials about how to change those norms, including our obsession with work, the culture of quantifying everything we do, social media, the way we treat relationships, and more.
Episodes
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162. The Code Switch Episode: Or Why Deondre' Can't Catch a Break
If you haven't heard of the podcast Code Switch, it is an NPR podcast that talks about race in America, and a person that Deondre' dated texted him to let him know that she called into the show to ask a question about their relationship. Immediately Deondre's interest was piqued, and it turns out...
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161. The Climbing Episode: The Japanese Have the Crabby Patty Recipe!
If you share our politics you might be a nervous wreck right now, but one thing that both Deondre and Isabel like to do for our physical and mental health is go rock climbing. So we have on a super fascinating guest, David Liu, who works at a popular rock gym chain called Movement. He talks to us...
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160. The Election Episode: #RippedforTrump
We do a little processing of what the hell happened with the election, including where we think the Democrats fucked up, and where we go from here. We are joined by our very important, insightful, and charismatic friend Ronald Young Jr, of Oh Its Big Ron Studios. It's his 4th time appearing on…
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159. The Courts System: What Does Prison Abolition Really Mean?
Reflecting on the previous episode, where Deondre' tells us about his experience of jury duty back in February, we talk about what we think the ideal system should be given that Deondre' has now had this experience. Isabel also had a friend of a friend go through a high-profile trial recently…
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158. The Jury Duty Episode: Jail for Life or Nothing
Prepare yourselves for a Cuckoo Bananas episode because Deondre' got called for jury duty and not only was Deondre' worried that he was going to be the alternate juror and not get to weigh in on the case at all, he actually got to be the foreman, which is the person who reads the verdict. This…
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157. The Gaza Episode: To Make Scandalous the Presentation of Context
Ya bois get down on some modern political commentary, albeit many months out of date (this podcast was originally recorded in November 2023) but a good lookback on our initial reactions to the crazy bullshit happening on the world stage happening now. Ezra Klein came out with take when all of…
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156. The Wedding Episode: I Was Playing the Game Of Love to Not Lose and Now I Am Playing to Win
Friends we are BACK ON OUR BULLSHIT. This episode is long overdue because Deondre' got married back in October and we recorded it back in November and now it is June. But fear not, we still have evergreen content for you all in the form of being messy and talking about our ex's, talking about the...
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155. The Camp Episode: If You Can't Find the Community You Want, You Need to Build It Yourself
It has been an actually ridiculous amount of time since we last posted an episode, but we are back! And we are back with another installment of Millennials Lust After Their College Walkable Community! We recorded this episode back in October 2023 about a camp what Mike Wheeler and Stephanie Logan...
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154. The Chaos Demon Episode: Sometimes You Really Are Just Vibing
This is a continuation of the previous episode from last week, and in this part of the conversation we UNPACK some SHIT. We talk about what happens when you are happily in an undefined relationship, and then eventually society comes along and peers in the window and asks you WHAT YOU ARE. This…
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153. The People Theory Episode: The Knight-Jones Personality Test
In this episode we talk about what we personally value when meeting another human being, and if there are particular factors that we find particularly revealing when it comes to a new person's personality, whether it be a potential lover or a new friend. Deondre' is all vibes. Can they talk about...
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152. The Electron Microscopy Episode: Meet the BEST Electron Microscopist in the WORLD!
Ok that might be a bit of an exaggeration, Cosmo Alto may not be the electron microscopist in the world, or North America, or Manhattan, but he is definitely the best electron microscopist I know. In this episode, Cosmo sits down with us and tells us about the wonderful world of electron...
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151: The New York City Episode: What Would Isabella Chiu Do?
What factors do you think about when you are deciding where you want to live? This is another one of those life design episodes where we discuss the factors we think about when trying to design how we want to live. When I was at South by Southwest in March, I ran into my friend Eric from high...
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150. The 150th Episode(!): I Have a Hard Time Trusting Anybody to Do Anything Good Enough for a Long Time
In this episode Deondre and I (Isabel) talk about this book that Isabel has been reading with her book group called My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem, which talks about how trauma physically manifests itself in the body, and how human beings can try to deal with that trauma using somatic...
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149. The Experience Camps Episode: Talking to the Sumo Wrestler on Your Hip to Take Away the Pain
Jesse Moss is the Senior Marketing Manager at Experience Camps, a free grief camp for kids. Before she worked at Experience Camps, she was talking to her friend having one of those classic conversations about how to find a job that you find meaningful, and her friend told her about the nonprofit...
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148. The Climate Episode: The 4 Horsemen Are Here
Martin Froger-Silva woke up one day in fall of 2017 to find his Berkeley home surrounded by smoke: it looked like a scene from Blade Runner 2049. He looked outside and the entire sky was red, like he had been transported to the surface of Mars. For weeks on end, due to the California forest…
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147. The Musician Episode: Am I Gonna Be a Wife or Am I Gonna Be a King?
"I feel like my mother loves me more than she loves herself, and it makes me feel really guilty. Am I bad if I don't love her more than I love myself?" Man, turning 30 does a lot of things to you. This quote is from our conversation with Chelsea Hines, a New Orleans-based musician, screenwriter,...
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146. The Support Episode: 60 Unglazed Pots
Kimaya Diggs wants you to ask her about her mother. One thing Kimaya can tell you about her is that before she died, Kimaya decided to take a pottery class, which her mother asked to join in on. She was incredibly prolific: she created around 300 pieces, but didn't like to glaze her work as much…
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145. The Pacific Crest Trail Episode: Imagine Not Needing to Unplug
When our friend Margot was getting ready to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), she thought she would be bored, and that this was going to be a period when she listened to more audiobooks than she had ever listened to in her life. But it turned out that when she actually started hiking, she…
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144. The Girl Moss Episode: The Girl Boss is Dead
We have probably all seen the late stage capitalism memes by now: "Stop glamorizing the grind and start glamorizing whatever this is" is a famous one, though there are many more. In this episode we talk about the societal shift towards glamorizing doing nothing. We talk with Winx Vestrit, a…
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143. The Concussion Episode Part 2: Anxiety is a Dizzyness of Freedom
This episode is a continuation of our last episode with Razi Shaban where he talks about having a major concussion before the pandemic started and how that experience changed his outlook on life. As an ex-Google employee, he had a lot of fun creating and building new things, but after the...
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142. The Concussion Episode Part 1: "OK: I am alive. And I am in a body. And everything hurts."
Traumatic brain injury can change your entire relationship with the outside world. That's what happened to Razi, who has sustained multiple concussions throughout his life starting in college, but suffered his worst concussion in 2019, right before the pandemic. When that happened, he was...
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141. The Pivot Episode: Grieving the Alternate Paths You Life Could Have Taken
There's a lot of episodes we've had about major life pivots: Andy Reinhold (Episode 78) talked about how he started in consulting, quit his job to follow his passion and work in gaming, and then went back to consulting to support his baby. Sara Alepin (Episode 123) wanted to be a teacher, but…
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140. The Disney Episode: Black Ariel, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and How Disney's Absurd Level of Historic Problmaticness Weirdly Set It Up for Success in the Modern Media Environment
This might be a little old because everything is a blip in the news cycle and yesterday's news is forgotten in like 24 hours, but we recorded this at the time that the Black Little Mermaid stuff was going on but only got to releasing it now. In this episode, we talk about how Disney has actually...
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139. The True Crime Episode: Virtuous Police Accountability or Gratuitous Violence Spectacle?
As some of you may know, Deondre' LOVES listening to true crime podcasts and so was very excited to have today's guest, Joy Scaglione, the host of the Bite-Sized Crime Podcast, on our show. We cover a lot in this episode: How does true crime reflect the broader inequalities in our society and…
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138. The Gay in the South Episode Pt 2: Somebody Had to Build That House, and You Can Build One Too
In last week's episode, we featured the first part of this conversation with Kenny Wical so if you missed it, you will want to take a listen to that one before you listen to this! In this episode, Kenny talks about ways that privilege manifests itself in his life, because there is a lot of…
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137. The Being Gay in the South Episode: When You Always Knew You Had a Little Sugar in the Tank
Kenny knew he was gay pretty much all his life, and has lived in Fayetteville, North Caroline, and then Raleigh North Carolina for the last 11 years. He talks to us about what his experience has been being gay in the South, especially given that a lot of the rest of the US considers the South a...
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136. The Political Consultant Episode: Why Establishment Politics is Important
In this episode, we sit down with Hannah De Groot, one of Isabel's old friends from high school, to talk about how her experience in political organizing turned into a job in political consulting. We've been wanting to talk to someone on the "inside" of politics for a long time, because much of...
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135. The Business Coach Episode: What Do You Owe the World vs. What Do You Owe to Yourself when Building a Business?
Becca Wood is a business coach and Squarespace website designer. She is also the host of the "Probably Bothered" podcast where she breaks down all of the things that bother her about her industry. In this episode, we talk about how so many people who go into business do into it because there is...
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134. The Actor Episode: Who Am I If I'm Not Acting?
Ayana Major Bey had a major reckoning when the pandemic hit. Ayana has been a musical theater actor, a "straight play" actor (which is what they call non-musical theater plays in the theater world), and is now a voice actor. She talks us through the process of figuring out her career: she got a...
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133. The Style Episode: Should You Wear Chacos on the First Date?
As a follow-up to the dating coach episode, where our longtime guest Shreye spoke to us about what he learned from going to a dating coach (Episode 125 if you missed it), he is now back on the show to talk to us about his experience with a style coach named Patrick, who Shreye flew to Scottsdale,...
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132. The 36 Questions Episode: Email Us and Tell Us Whether You Are in Love With Us After Listening to This Episode
Since we have been on a series of pretty heavy episodes recently, we decided it would be a good idea to lighten the mood a little bit and talk about the NYT's 36 Questions to Make You Fall in Love, or as they have recently backtracked it to, perhaps because they thought their original headline…
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131. The Sexual Trauma Episode: There is No Such Thing As Deviancy
Trigger warning: This episode contains discussion of early childhood rape, sexual assault, and incest. This is a continuation of our conversation last week with Sunshine, so if you missed last week's episode, listen to that before listening to this. Even more so that last week's episode, this...
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130. The Art Episode: How Art Can Help Heal Sexual Trauma
Trigger Warning: This episode mentions rape and sexual assault. This is a heavy episode, and next week's episode will be even heavier. We sit down with Isabel's friend Sunshine to talk about being an artist and the ways in which art can help you process trauma, in this case sexual trauma, and how...
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129. The Roe Episode: Well, Here We Are
Well, it happened: Roe got overturned. Just like we knew it would. We have talked a lot about our revolutionary thinking on this show, and used this platform to document the major points of political radicalization we have had since the show started: for Isabel, it was when RBG died, for Deondre'...
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128. The Introversion Episode: Should Introverts Run the World?
We feel like more and more people have been talking bout introversion vs. extroversion as a paradigm for categorizing people now, which probably started out because of the popularity of the Myers-Briggs, but also has been redefined more recently, or perhaps this definition has simply made it more...
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127: The Astrology Episode: You Can't Snap You Fingers and Achieve Inner Peace, but You Can Get Into Astrology
Isabel got invited to an astrology party and so in this episode we talk about the rise in popularity of astrology and why we think it has been so trendy even though we think it is kind of bullshit and also why it might be useful in your life even if you think it is kind of bullshit. We also talk...
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126. The Wedding Episode: Are Weddings Just For the Couple?
Sara Alepin is back in this exciting episode about the wedding industry, as she has been a wedding photographer for over 10 years. She has ALL the stories, from wedding SNAFU's (one major tip she had to share: Shout wipes are better than Tide pens at removing stains right before the wedding...
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125. The Dating Coach Episode: Figuring Out the "Click"
Do you know the moment when you feel as if you don't understand something, and then something just clicks? What do you do when the thing you are confused about is dating? Is it possible to help coach someone who hasn't had a lot of success at dating to get something as complex as flirting to...
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124. The Health Coach Episode: We've All Been Taught to Ignore Our Bodies
Get some water before you listen to this episode: I had to remind myself to drink multiple times during this episode. In this episode, we talk to health coach and host of the podcast "Salad with a Side of Fries," Jenn Trepeck. She talks with us about all of the complexities of the health and food...
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123. The Invisible Disability Episode: What Would You Do If You Could Only Be On Your Feet for 3-4 Hours A Day?
Sara Alepin was really passionate about being a teacher - and still is! But one day she was forced to quit her job teaching when she became permanently disabled from breaking up a fight at her school where a student stomped on a foot and crushed one of her nerves, making it difficult for her to...
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122. The Land Episode: How Can We Make Equity Work for the Community?
The real estate market is bananas right now. You may have seen the headlines about around-the-block lines for open houses in San Francisco, or watched houses in your neighborhood go on and off the market the same day on Zillow. A lot of that has to do with the current low interest rates but it…
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121. The Faith Episode: How We Build Meaning in Everything From Neighborhood Architecture to High School Musical Nights
Wes Willison lives on a block with 100 houses on it. That is a very long block by most urban planning standards and he starts off telling us a bit about what that kind of built environment affords you: safety, because you have a lot more eyes on all the people going up and down the street but…
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120. The AI Episode: Immortality and Endless Wealth or Human Extinction?
There's a pretty fundamental shift in our near future and the median AI scientist says it is coming by about the year 2040: the rise of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Right now, the types of AI that power TikTok and Facebook and Spotify and Netflix and any number of other major tech...
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119. The Proposal Episode: The Life and Death of Relationships
You know the game 2 truths and a lie? Well we are switching it up and making it 2 breakups and a marriage proposal: in the last 2 weeks, we have had 1 proposal and 2 breakups between the 2 co-hosts. So we take a minute to talk about what we have learned from those experiences and why it's weird...
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118. The Missionary Episode: How Religious Institutions are Changing to Cater to the Youth
Is soaking really a thing? Bubble porn? That thing where you get on a top bunk and have your friends jump around on the bottom bunk as a way to simulate sex? These are all things that people on Tiktok say the Mormon Youth do to get around the Mormon requirement not to have sex before marriage. In...
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117. The Mormon Episode: What is it Like to Be a Progressive Mormon?
Cody Crabb knows how this sounds. In today's increasingly secular environment, saying you are religious sounds like you are saying you believe in aliens. Saying you are a progressive Mormon sounds like you either don't know what progressivism is or you don't know what Mormons believe. The Mormon...
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116. The Endemic Episode: The Next Phase of Covid
In this episode, we discuss a recent 2-part series by The Daily discussing the next phase of Covid-19 and how we are going to get there, including whether or not we are going to have to rely on the unvaccinated to get vaccinated. In the second part of their series, they interview Dr. Fauci, where...
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115. The Figuring Shit Out Episode: The Millennial Urge To Throw Your Life Away and Start All Over Again
Have you ever felt like you don't know what to do with your life? You know we have to solve just about 101 existential crises in our lifetime, and you want to pick a career that does some good for the world and helps us solve these problems, but at the same time, you have so many friends who have...
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114. The Digital Nomad Episode: When There's No Return Ticket
When was the last time you decided to go live in another country with no plans to return? In this episode, we talk to Isabel's friend Elaine, who has spent much of her post-college life traveling around the world and is currently teaching English in Shanghai. Prior to the pandemic, she had plans…
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113. The Bo Burnham Episode: The Ultimate Millennial Comic
If you have seen "Inside," you know that it is pretty unique as far as comedy specials go. It was shot entirely by Bo during the course of the pandemic inside of his LA guest house and touches on very millennial themes, such as the effects of the internet and social media on our collective mental...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Welcome to I'M THE VILLAIN, a podcast about 2 millennials trying to decode, deconstruct, and dismantle the world as we know it.The show is a conversational podcast where we talk about all the things that are fucked up about the status quo in America, with the perspective of the villain (Isabel) and hero (Deondre'). We talk about norms we think need to change in society, and talk with other millennials about how to change those norms, including our obsession with work, the culture of quantifying everything we do, social media, the way we treat relationships, and more.
HOSTED BY
Isabel Knight & Deondre' Jones
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does I'M THE VILLAIN have?
I'M THE VILLAIN currently has 162 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is I'M THE VILLAIN about?
Welcome to I'M THE VILLAIN, a podcast about 2 millennials trying to decode, deconstruct, and dismantle the world as we know it.The show is a conversational podcast where we talk about all the things that are fucked up about the status quo in America, with the perspective of the villain (Isabel) and...
How often does I'M THE VILLAIN release new episodes?
I'M THE VILLAIN publishes regularly with 162 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to I'M THE VILLAIN?
You can listen to I'M THE VILLAIN on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts I'M THE VILLAIN?
I'M THE VILLAIN is created and hosted by Isabel Knight & Deondre' Jones.
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