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In this episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss the impacts of antifa’s designation as a domestic terrorist group as author Mark Bray faces new harassment from the far-right.
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Michael Calore, Leah Feiger, David Gilbert
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The New Power of Far-Right Influencers
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‘Seattle News Weekly’: Haunting cold case out of Snohomish, WA
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‘Seattle News Weekly S1E10’: Snohomish County community haunted by cold case
On the tenth episode of the “Seattle News Weekly” podcast, FOX 13 Seattle anchor David Rose and reporter Lauren Donovan discuss a 2006 cold case out of Snohomish County, which continues to haunt the community. It’s been nearly 20 years, but David Stodden — who lost his wife and daughter — is still processing the pain.
SEATTLE – A cold case in Snohomish County has haunted the community for nearly twenty years. On a Tuesday in July 2006, Mary Cooper and her daughter, Susanna Stodden, were murdered at the end of their hike on the Pinnacle Lake Trail off the Mountain Loop Highway.
On the tenth episode of the ‘Seattle News Weekly’ podcast, David Rose sits down with reporter Lauren Donovan, to discuss the case. Both Rose and Donovan have closely followed the case in their Seattle journalism careers and have worked directly with Snohomish County law enforcement to learn as much as they can about both the case itself, and the process that goes into working with such a sensitive cold case.
Cold case homicide flyer courtesy of Snohomish County Sheriff’s office
Donovan begins the podcast by laying out the scene of the crime: The women were at a natural resting spot on the trail, a spot where one would pull over for a sip of water or grab a bite to eat. Then, they were both found shot to death.
Rose began his FOX 13 Seattle journalism journey in 2007, a year after the murders took place.
Rose explains the process of working with unsolved cases. He says they take out the entire file, they reconcile it, and they look for things they can retest for DNA and if they get DNA, they can submit that for genetic genealogy.
Earlier this month, Donovan reported on the story, shining light on the grief that still looms over David Stodden, the father and husband of the victims in the case. On the podcast, she talks about her experience spending time with Stodden and Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Detective Dave Bilyeu.
One of the key pieces of this story that Donovan covers on the podcast, is that Stodden was a a person of interest for nearly a decade. His name was not cleared until after taking three polygraph tests. Donovan describes the feelings surrounding the case, when she spent time with Stodden, who read a poem aloud in the spot where his wife and daughter were killed.
They conclude the podcast with a clip from Detective Bilyeu, who talks about the Sheriff’s Office’s commitment to bringing answers to the family and the community. They highlight his effort to never stop bringing the case to life and their commitment as journalists to continue that effort as well.
Donovan says when she reported on the story earlier this month, she felt like she was able to step into the shoes of an investigator, which she says she appreciated a lot.
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Annabelle.Pepin@fox.com (Annabelle Pepin)
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Kim Kardashian Explains What It’s Like To Co-Parent With Kanye West: “It’s Not Easy”
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“I welcome a great healthy relationship with my kids and their dad, and I think he knows that, I push for it all the time,” she said. But just because she welcomes it doesn’t mean that it necessarily happens. “It’s not easy.”
Kardashian’s kids see West “whenever he’ll call for them and ask,” she said, though “it’s probably been a couple months since we’ve heard from him.”
Though Kardashian’s chauffeured black car has a high road-only route programmed in when it comes to navigating her relationship with West, both public and private, that doesn’t mean she’s unbothered by some of the things said about her.
“The one thing that just gets me is that there’s this narrative that, like, I keep the kids away from him,” she said. “I’ve never once done that. Like, there’s been so many times where I’ve been like, ‘Oh, I just wanna show all of these texts. What are you talking about?’”
Headlines often take her by surprise, she said. “I think it’s all good and we’re living our life and then I just wake up and there’s all these tweets about how I’ve kidnapped the kids and I’m like, it’s not a kidnapping, it’s a divorce.”
There wasn’t one specific thing that made her reach a breaking point and end the marriage, but consistently “not feeling safe” with West.
And even though she hasn’t publicly rebutted West’s claims about her parenting doesn’t mean she hasn’t been tempted. Kardashian revealed that she lives and dies by writing emails and tweets that she’ll never send.
“There has been so many times where I’ve written a draft and been like, ‘I’m gonna go,’ and then I’m just like, what’s the point? You know, what is the point? Am I gonna go back and forth? My kids are gonna see this.”
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Kase Wickman
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New on Netflix: Some of Spotify’s Biggest Podcasts
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Video podcasts are coming to Netflix — in part because everyone’s gotta compete with YouTube.
Photo: Bill Simmons via YouTubeWhat even counts as television these days, anyway? That question gets a tad thornier by the day, especially now that Netflix has announced a new partnership with Spotify to bring a curated slate of the latter’s owned video podcasts onto the streaming platform.
It’s a sizable lineup, one that mostly draws from The Ringer, the Bill Simmons–founded network that Spotify acquired in 2020, and which in recent months has been notably embracing video. The slate coming to Netflix includes the expected sports programming like The Bill Simmons Podcast (redemption, presumably, for Any Given Wednesday) and The Zach Lowe Show, but also more culture-oriented fare like The Rewatchables, The Big Picture, and The Dave Chang Show. Beyond The Ringer, the deal brings on podcasts that had been absorbed in Spotify’s 2019 acquisition of Parcast, including the generically named True Crime and Serial Killers, both of which will likely play nicely with Netflix’s recommendation algorithm. They will become available on Netflix in the U.S. early next year, with other markets to eventually follow. More titles are expected to be added later.
For Netflix, this move doesn’t come out of nowhere. The company has been steadily experimenting with broadening its on-platform definition of “content,” including video games and digital video programming that originated on YouTube, like the popular kids’ YouTuber Ms. Rachel. It’s also long dabbled on the periphery of podcasting, mainly producing branded company shows tied to its television projects, not unlike how HBO uses podcasts to deepen engagement with shows like The Gilded Age and The Last of Us.
But the podcast world has changed dramatically in the past few years. The rapid rise of video-first programming has completely reshaped the medium — and Netflix’s leadership has been watching. “The lines between podcast and talk shows are getting pretty blurry,” co-CEO Ted Sarandos told investors back in April. “As the popularity of video podcasts grows, I suspect you’ll see some of them find their way to Netflix.” Around the same time, Axios reported that it was seeking a podcast chief, signaling a deeper structural move into the space.
For Spotify, things are a little more complicated. The deal represents both a retreat and a reframing. After spending years and billions of dollars to become the dominant podcasting player — buying Gimlet Media (now shuttered), Parcast (also largely shuttered), and The Ringer, plus signing exclusive deals with Joe Rogan and Alex Cooper (who later left for SiriusXM) — the Swedish platform had been further pivoting toward video in search of more lucrative ad dollars and a better business model for its podcast efforts. But YouTube’s sudden incursion into the podcast space, precipitated by the medium’s broader turn toward video, has effectively boxed Spotify in; it didn’t take long for audience-research reports to indicate that more podcast listeners now consider YouTube to be their top preferred platform, surpassing Spotify. By bringing its video podcasts to Netflix, Spotify can extend its shows’ reach without shouldering the cost of competing in video distribution. It’s a way of turning its original content into syndicated inventory, licensing its productions into a marketplace and audience ecosystem that’s indicated greater affinity toward visual programming.
Both companies, of course, are reacting to the same gravitational pull: YouTube. The platform has evolved into the default center of gravity for the creator economy, swallowing categories like music, gaming, education, and now podcasts. In recent months, YouTube had been quietly reframing itself as a direct competitor to Netflix, a position further substantiated by its own claim that the platform is reaching more viewers over television sets than on phones and computers. As such, for Netflix and Spotify, this partnership is less a marriage than a kind of mutual defense pact: Netflix gets a new vein of low-cost, evergreen talk content that helps it compete in attention time against YouTube, while Spotify gets a new distribution vector that can keep its video and podcast investments relevant.
The most intriguing question is how far Netflix is willing to go, and whether it’s considering adding what’s long thought to be the most popular podcast in the world: The Joe Rogan Experience. (Spotify doesn’t own Rogan’s show, but it holds an exclusive distribution deal.) Or, indeed, whether it will lean toward bringing on the most culturally influential podcast genre we have: politics. Given Netflix’s aversion to anything resembling news programming, there’s likely not much appetite for that. At least, not yet. But give it time — and, perhaps, a bad fiscal quarter.
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Nicholas Quah
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Bill Maher says he can’t deny President Trump’s success despite acknowledging he wasn’t ‘his choice’
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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Comedian Bill Maher said he can’t deny President Donald Trump‘s success during his podcast on Monday, while acknowledging he was not Maher’s choice.
Maher, speaking with actor William H. Macy during his “Club Random” podcast, said he can’t deny success – no matter who it is.
“I always say this — you cannot ever deny success. You just have to give your respect even if it’s not your thing. Have the humility to give it up for enormous success on any level. Trump — not my choice, didn’t vote for him,” Maher said. “And he’s – I can’t deny the success.”
Macy agreed and said, “I can’t either – and he’s the president.”
Former President Donald Trump looks on during a meeting at the 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 23, 2025, at United Nations headquarters in New York City. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Macy then pointed to a signed sheet of paper hanging in Maher’s studio that listed the many insults the president had thrown at him over the years, which Trump signed when Maher visited the White House.
“That’s f—— brilliant,” Macy said of Maher bringing it to the White House to sign.
“This is what’s so amazing, that he, off the top of his head, could come up with 56 different—,” Maher said, before reading the insults and names Trump had given him. “It’s hip, and it says something about the human mind, or some human minds.”
Maher quipped that he couldn’t come up with that many names for someone.
BILL MAHER CLASHES WITH LIBERAL ACTOR OVER TRUMP, IMMIGRATION POLICY
Bill Maher at SiriusXM Studios on May 20, 2024, in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)
Maher met with the president at the White House in April – a move that angered some liberals.
The comedian said Trump was “gracious and measured” and suggested the man in the Oval Office is not the man the rest of the world sees on TV.
“I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him,” Maher told his audience. “And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That’s just how it went down. Make of it what you will. Me? I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after stepping off Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Oct. 5, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
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Though a frequent critic of the president, Maher has also said Trump is one of the “most effective” politicians, due to his authenticity.
“Trump really is one of the most effective politicians, whether whatever you think of the policy and him as a person, just as a politician, just understanding that — always lean in to being more who you are — the people are not savvy about issues, but they smell a phony a mile away. And that kind of s—? Nobody else does it,” Maher said during his podcast in April.
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Marc Maron to drop one last ‘WTF’ podcast after 16 years and more than 1,600 episodes
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LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Marc Maron is locking the gates on his podcast Monday after 16 years and more than 1,600 episodes.
The final episode of “WTF With Marc Maron” is expected to drop in the morning, but its contents, and the identity of his last interview guest (or guests) remains a mystery.
In his penultimate episode on Thursday, the 62-year-old Maron said it was his last from his home studio, but said nothing else about who might show up for his swan song.
Maron’s guests are rarely if ever announced in advance. Fans have been fervently speculating about who they might hear Monday. Could it be an entertainment giant making their first appearance? ( Bob Dylan?Taylor Swift? ) A more personal choice? (An old friend? His parents?) A reprise of a previous major guest? ( Barack Obama? ) Maybe a combination?
On Thursday’s episode, Maron chose to go it solo and talk directly to listeners as he has for several minutes to open every episode.
“We’ve had a relationship for a long time — 16 years,” he said. “That’s the longest relationship I’ve ever had.”
He got emotional several times as he spoke.
“I’m grateful to have been part of your lives,” he said. “We’ve been through a lot of stuff together. A lot of breakups. Death. Cats. The world.”
The final episode will be No. 1,686 of the pioneering and influential long-form interview podcast that had humble beginnings in 2009 as a place where he worked out his issues with other stand-up comedians in the garage of his Los Angeles home that he dubbed “The Cat Ranch.”
For most of its years the show has opened with a fan-composed rock ‘n’ roll theme song that opens with an audio sample of Maron in his small role in the film “Almost Famous” shouting, “Lock the gates!” The song is named for one of Maron’s common phrases, “Are We Doing This?” Another such phrase, “Are we good?” was often his last question to guests and is the title of a new documentary on him.
Eventually, “WTF” became a media institution where authors, artists, musicians, Hollywood stars and political leaders would give him their backstory.
Maron announced in June that he and longtime producing partner Brendan McDonald had decided to end the show. He said there was no particular reason, other than that he was tired and utterly satisfied with the work they had done.
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‘Seattle News Weekly’: New WA taxes push small businesses to close
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‘Seattle News Weekly S1E9’: Controversial new taxes take effect in WA
On the ninth episode of the “Seattle News Weekly” podcast, FOX 13 Seattle anchor Hana Kim talks about a suite of controversial new taxes that took effect this month, pushed by the state’s Democratic-majority Legislature. Joining Hana to discuss the effect of these recent taxes is Joshua Dirks, team lead of Seattle-based advertising company Project Bionic.
SEATTLE – A controversial slew of taxes went into effect on Oct. 1 in Washington state, which aim to generate about $9 billion over four years. The taxes impact about 90,000 businesses.
On the ninth episode of the “Seattle News Weekly” podcast, FOX 13 Seattle anchor Hana Kim talks about a suite of controversial new taxes that took effect this month, pushed by the state’s Democratic-majority Legislature. Joining Hana to discuss the effect of these recent taxes is Joshua Dirks, team lead of Seattle-based advertising company Project Bionic.
The controversy centers on the expansion of the retail sales tax to cover various services, including digital advertising. This tax is now applied to services such as information technology, custom website development, investigation/security services, live presentations and custom software.
Dirks runs a digital agency that he says has become prohibitively expensive to run in the state of Washington. Closing his business is a hard fact to face, according to Dirks.
On the podcast, Dirks notes that the bill includes an exemption for traditional advertising, such as print ads in newspapers and billboards, but not for digital advertising, which he says creates an uneven playing field. This has caused clients to look out of state, resulting in Dirks losing a 16-year account to a Los Angeles agency.
They discussed the size of his business, which was made up of 16 employees. They go into the concept that, even though his business is small, it still uses an extensive list of software and digital automated services.
Dirks says the taxes are going to create a big knowledge gap in the marketplace because businesses may no longer be able to pay for educational resources and events that revolve around understanding new topics in the industry, like the emergence of AI and the digital sphere overall.
Dirks also discusses the increase in the Business and Occupation (B&O) tax. The B&O tax for businesses grossing $5 million or more is set to increase from 1.75% to 2.1%. Dirks clarifies that $5 million in gross revenue is mostly overhead, not profit, for most businesses. Businesses are being “double impacted” by both the new sales tax and a 20% B&O tax increase on services, according to Dirks.
They discuss the divide in how people believe tax money should be spent in Washington and Dirks encourages voters to research their government officials and where they stand on tax packages like the one enacted on Oct. 1.
Dirks brings up that a large business, Comcast, is suing over the tax, but Dirks is critical of state leaders for pushing the tax through in eight days without consulting the industry or small businesses. He advocates for lawmakers to visit small and medium-sized businesses and learn about their operational pain points.
The podcast concludes with a discussion about large businesses and that businesses will continue to move away from states that are increasing taxes like these. Dirks says people should come together to find a solution to these problems with businesses rather than increasing tax.
The podcast wraps up after Dirks says he anticipates other creative businesses are considering moving out of the state. He states he will eventually move out of the area and no longer incorporate his future businesses in Washington, choosing to be “geoflexible.” He warns that the mass exodus of talent could “meteorically change the face of what Seattle looks like.”
Join us every Thursday to stay up to date on weekly news around the area.
Seattle News Weekly is a podcast that goes in depth and gives context to the stories that matter to the western Washington community. Check back every Thursday for a new episode on your favorite podcast platform, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, Amazon Music, TuneIn and Audible, or YouTube.
The Source: Information in this story came from original FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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Annabelle.Pepin@fox.com (Annabelle Pepin)
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How China Is Hoping to Attract Tech Talent
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Lauren Goode: What’s an example of that?
Louise Matsakis: So, for example, there were some Chinese influencers who were spreading these conspiracy theories that Indians were plotting to use the visa to immigrate to China en masse.
Lauren Goode: Interesting. You’ve both covered China’s businesses and workforce for years. Was this backlash surprising to you?
Zeyi Yang: I would say yes, but also no. The no is because I know China has never been an immigrant country, so the idea to introduce a lot of foreign talents to the country, giving them some kind of preferential treatment over others, it’s definitely going to cause some kind of outrage from the population. That part I am sure. The thing is that I feel that after China has been trying to open up to the world for quite a few decades at this point, I was expecting there to be a little bit more patience from the Chinese people because China also wants to be an AI leader at this age. And right now, the only model they can look after is the United States, which has been building on a ton of immigrant talent to build the AI industry. So, I was thinking maybe that kind of policy orientation will push them over the xenophobic obstacles that we are seeing, but unfortunately, the situation that seems to have happened is that it cannot.
Lauren Goode: So there are some cultural challenges to this. I mean, what do you think are some of the other challenges that China will face as it tries to roll out this K visa and attract foreign talent?
Louise Matsakis: I mean, I think the main thing is just that China, like Zeyi said, is absolutely not a country of immigrants. In 2020, only about 0.1% of the mainland population was made up of foreigners, according to one estimate. And it’s also worth noting that that estimate includes people from Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong. These are places that are very culturally similar to China. So, the number of people who come from Africa, or North America, or Europe is just astonishingly small compared to the population size of China. In the US, about 15% of the people who live in this country are immigrants. That’s a huge difference. So, I think that it can be hard for new arrivals to adjust. It’s a difficult language. There’s an entirely different ecosystem of apps and programs that you have to use. I remember the first time I went on a business trip to China, I needed to get the receipt for my expenses, and I was like, “Can you email me a PDF of my receipt?” And the people at the hotel looked at me like I was crazy. And they were like, “We’re just going to send it over WeChat.” And I was like, “Oh.” There are a lot of small things like that that are really different, whereas, because for the last few decades, American culture and American tech companies have been so ubiquitous in the rest of the world, someone who comes to the US from India or from Europe, they’re probably going to be using the same email platforms, the same social media networks. And a lot of the business norms are similar, right? Of course, there’s still cultural differences. And if those people get homesick, they can find an immigrant community wherever they are. They can find food that reminds them of home. That’s not necessarily the case in China. And so, I think the idea of a city like Shanghai or Beijing becoming a truly cosmopolitan hub that is a mix of different cultures is something that I think is really far off from now. I think it could happen, and I think it’s likely that it will happen as the shifts of global power tilt away from the US. I think in this era where we’re not making a lot of good choices, and we’re not really making a lot of friends around the world, it’s certainly possible, but China is just starting from a really different place than a city like San Francisco.
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Lauren Goode, Louise Matsakis, Zeyi Yang
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Patreon CEO Jack Conte Wants You to Get Off of Your Phone
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Before we really get too far into it, we always start with a little bit of rapid-fire questioning, some warmup. Jack, what is the most active text thread that you’re on?
I am not on any active text threads. I try to do as little of that as possible.
OK, we may come back to that later. What does the algorithm know about you?
Way too much.
Oh yeah, I know the feeling.
It knows that I got a new dog recently.
What kind of dog?
She’s a mutt. She is a little bit of a golden retriever, a little bit of Chihuahua, some pit bull. She’s the most beautiful creature in the world.
I also have a pit bull mutt. Are you getting ads for dog food now?
Yes.
I get it. What is a piece of tech that changed your life?
DAWs, digital audio workstations. The transition from having to have half a million dollars of recording gear to make an album to being able to make an album on your laptop is the most beautiful, wonderful thing in the world.
What is your favorite way to spend a Saturday in the Bay Area? I have to ask, you’re from here, and of course we are here.
Sorry to bring up the dog twice, but she just learned that she can run straight into the ocean. And it’s so great. I love it. And so I throw sticks for her into the ocean. She bolts into the ocean, totally fearlessly swims around, looking for it. Best thing in the world.
What music app do you use the most?
Spotify.
Let’s give our audience a little bit of your backstory, just in case they don’t have it. So you were born and raised here in San Francisco, and music has always been in your life. You studied music at Stanford, you founded Patreon with your old college roommate in 2013, and that was in response to a personal experience, right?
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Katie Drummond
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WIRED Roundup: The New Fake World of OpenAI’s Social Video App
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Manisha Krishnan: Yeah, this season has … I mean, this is the first time I’ve watched in 15 years. But this season has been pretty spot on. It’s almost like they’re reading WIRED and satirizing everything. I feel like if Trump and Eric Adams started a talk show, maybe that could be the catacomb.
Zoë Schiffer: I like that.
Manisha Krishnan: Because everyone would find it funny across political lines.
Zoë Schiffer: So maybe South Park will save us after all. Switching gears literally for our next story. Our colleague Aarian Marshall reported that Tesla has been encouraging drowsy drivers to use the full self-driving or FSD mode on their cars. Contrary to its name, this feature does not actually allow cars to drive themselves, it just assists drivers in doing a variety of basic tasks. The manual for the car says that the driver needs to be ready to take over at all times. But drivers are reporting that in-car messages are appearing to tell them to do just the opposite. The messages say things like “Drowsiness detected, stay focused with FSD.” Or, “Lane drift detected, let FSD assist you so that you can stay focused.”
Manisha Krishnan: Yeah, that sounds dangerous. It sounds like they’re kind of like, “Hey, you want to take a nap right now? Let FSD kick in.” No, they should be blasting music, blasting the AC, make it like a spin class in there to wake you up. Tesla has made changes to its technology to make it more difficult for inattentive drivers to use FSD. Back in 2021, the company started using in-car driving monitor cameras to determine where their drivers were sufficiently paying attention while using FSD.
Zoë Schiffer: It seems at odds with their past efforts to build more safety around their self-driving features. This is like a pretty delicate time for Tesla. For years, the company has been accused of making products that can be allegedly defective in certain ways. This past August, a Florida jury found that the company was partly liable for a 2019 crash that killed a 22-year-old woman. The crash occurred when a Tesla model S driver was using an older version of the company’s driver assistant software called Autopilot. At the same time, Elon Musk and the company’s board of directors have put FSD at the center of the automakers strategy. So Musk has promised that the feature will transform into a truly autonomous driving system by the end of the year, although that’s looking unlikely. And Elon Musk is generally known for promising pretty aggressive timelines that then he blows pass again and again. One more before we go to break. WIRED Science reporter, Emily Mullin reported this week that scientists made human eggs from skin cells, and use them to form embryos. This is a huge deal because it could mean a new way to treat infertility for people who want kids. But to be clear, none of the embryos were actually used to try and establish pregnancy. And it’s unlikely that they would’ve developed much further than the womb. But it’s still a really big deal because it could one day be used as an alternative to IVF.
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Zoë Schiffer, Manisha Krishnan
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Your Delivery Robot Is Here
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Louise Matsakis: Yeah, I think that that’s an incredibly good point. It’s often about modifying the labor rather than eliminating it.
Michael Calore: All right, we’re going to take a quick break and then we’ll come right back with recommendations. Thank you, both, for a great conversation about robots. We might not be DoorDash’s cute new Dot, but we are here to deliver some recommendations for our listeners. Do you like that? Is that good? Don’t answer. Aarian, you get to go first. What do you recommend this week?
Aarian Marshall: That was really good Mike. I’m going to recommend the JBL Clip 5, which is a Bluetooth speaker. I will caveat this by saying I’m not an audiophile. I’m not one of those really picky people, but I think it has really great sound. I got one recently for my birthday and I like to carry it around. It has this very handy clip that you can clip onto your shower, you can clip onto a backpack. If you’re traveling, you can clip onto, I don’t know, your dog and have traveling pretty good sound, and it’s a relatively inexpensive for I think a pretty good speaker and I’ve really enjoyed using it.
Michael Calore: Nice. How much is it?
Aarian Marshall: It is currently 69.95.
Michael Calore: That’s so cheap for a good Bluetooth speaker.
Aarian Marshall: I think so too.
Michael Calore: I mean, I’m sure there are cheaper ones, but that one is actually pretty good. It’s like my second favorite, I would say, of the ones that when people ask me which Bluetooth speaker should I get, I tell them the UE Boom or the JBL Xlip. I make it sound like people ask me that all the time, but really it’s only a couple of times a year.
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Michael Calore, Louise Matsakis, Aarian Marshall
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Decoding Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life a Showgirl’: A guide to her references
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NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — The curtain has been drawn. The stage lights are on. It’s time for “The Life of a Showgirl.”
For Taylor Swift’s most dedicated audience, a new album means new opportunities to decode Easter eggs in her lyrics and music videos. The pop superstar’s 12th studio album has no shortage of clever clues and references to her public life and discography. Many are opaque, revealing just enough to inspire a myriad of fan theories. Others are concrete – explicit names and places worth exploring. Below, you will find a guide to those instances, and how they relate to Swift.
Read on, and happy digging!
Lyric: “That view of Portofino was on my mind / When you called me at the Plaza Athénée”
Meaning: When Swift announced her new album, she did so with the introduction of a shade she’s calling Portofino Orange Glitter after donning the color onstage during the latter part of her “Eras Tour.” “I’ve just always liked it,” she said of the hue during her first appearance on “New Heights,” the popular, typically football-focused podcast hosted by her fiancé Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason Kelce. “It feels like energetically how my life has felt. And this album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour.” She and beau Kelce were spotted last year in Lake Como, Italy, but it is unclear if they spent time in nearby Portofino. Additionally, the standard version of her album is available in “sweat and vanilla perfume Portofino orange vinyl.” As for the Plaza Athénée? That’s a luxury hotel in Paris.
Lyric: “Be my NY when Hollywood hates me”
Meaning: Both locations make appearances in Swift’s songwriting. Among them: “Welcome to New York” from 2014’s “1989” and “White Horse” from 2008’s “Fearless.” She also owns property in both locations.
Lyric: “Babe, I would trade the Cartier for someone to trust … just kidding”
Meaning: In August of this year, Swift announced her engagement to Kelce by posting a carousel of images on Instagram. Eagle-eyed fans noticed that the ring wasn’t the only jewelry she was showing off. She was also wearing a Cartier watch.
Lyric: “We hit the best booth at Musso & Frank’s”
Meaning: Since opening in 1919, Musso & Frank Grill has been a hot spot for celebrities in Los Angeles – embodying the kind of old school Hollywood glamor that inspired “The Life of a Showgirl” artwork.
Lyric: “All my white diamonds and lovers are forever”
Meaning: The song is titled “Elizabeth Taylor” after the classic Hollywood starlet who, in 1991, created her own perfume called “White Diamonds.”
Lyric: “You drive, 85 / Gallatin Road and the lakeside beach”
Meaning: There are several Gallatin Roads in the United States, but given the other lyrics in the song, this one likely refers to a street in Hendersonville, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville, where Swift spent her adolescence.
Lyric: “But as the 50 Cent song played”
Meaning: A 50 Cent reference further implies this song is rooted in Swift’s teen years in the ’00s, when the rapper was at the height of his popularity. The song also mentions “prom” and “second period,” what is typically associated with high school.
Lyric: “When I left school, I lost track of you / Abigail called me with the bad news / Goodbye”
Meaning: Abigail refers to Swift’s best friend AbigailAnderson, who she attended Hendersonville High School with. This marks the second time Abigail is mentioned in Swift’s discography: the first is the evocative “Fifteen” from “Fearless.”
Lyric: “Redwood tree / It ain’t hard to see”
Meaning: In Oct. 2023, Swift and Kelce made a surprise appearance at “Saturday Night Live” for a season premiere episode that featured host Pete Davidson and musical performer/friend to Swift, Ice Spice.Afterwards, “SNL” cast member Bowen Yang described the couple as the “tallest people in the world,” on the “Las Culturistas” podcast he co-hosts with comedian Matt Rogers. “I see them together, I go, ‘I am in the Redwood Forest.’” Hence, “Redwood tree.”
Lyric: “New Heights of manhood”
Meaning: “New Heights” is a direct reference to the Kelces’ podcast of the same name.
Lyric: “Summertime spritz, pink skies”
Meaning: Physical album variants have been a huge part of Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” rollout, and in some ways, they appear in the lyrics of “Honey.” The color of her exclusive vinyl release with Target, “The Crowd Is Your King” edition, was described online as “summertime spritz pink shimmer.”
Lyric: “Wintergreen kiss, all mine”
Meaning: This line relates to another one of her variants: “The Shiny Bug Collection,” which is available in “violet shimmer marbled vinyl” and more relevantly, “wintergreen and onyx marbled vinyl.” (“Violet” is mentioned in “Elizabeth Tylor,” as is “onyx” in “Opalite.”)
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Kelly Stafford Feels Judged When She Drinks While Traveling With 4 Daughters
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Kelly Stafford conceded that she sometimes needs a bit of liquid courage to brace for the challenge of traveling with her four young daughters.
With Kelly’s husband, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, in the twilight of his NFL playing career, Kelly has been making it a point to travel to as many of his games as possible with her kids in tow — which isn’t always a walk in the park.
“It’s horrible — I’m traveling with my kids — and I feel like people are judging me if I have a drink,” Kelly said on her podcast, “The Morning After,” on Thursday, October 2. “But I’m also like, ‘Just one?’”
Kelly, 36, and Matthew, 37, share four daughters: twins Sawyer and Chandler, 8, Hunter, 7, and Tyler, 5.
The football wife did acknowledge that not everybody is looking at her sideways about imbibing on long travel days with her girls.
“Most flight attendants as I’m leaving are like, ‘Do you want some of these shots?’” Kelly said. “I will take them, thank you so much. For when I get home.”
Kelly has never shied away from admitting that indulging in a vice every once in a while makes the parenting journey easier.
“Sometimes I feel like [weed] gummies make me a better parent,” Kelly said on her podcast in June. “They calm me down.”
She added, “I feel a little guilty saying it and it’s not like I do it every night. Sometimes I’m like, ‘S***, I’ve been a long day. I don’t want to rip my hair out or their hair out, so I’m going to just top it off with a little gummy.’”
Kelly joked that her daughters have started to notice a change in her attitude when she decides it’s gummy time.
They’re like, ‘Mommy’s nice tonight,’” she joked.
“Some nights I’m really mean, some nights I’m really nice,” she added. “I feel like it’s a good balance.”
Kelly noted that Matthew, who is currently in his 17th NFL season and fifth with the Rams, is “fine” with his wife’s gummy habit.
“As long as they’re in bed, fed and happy and feel loved, who cares how they get there,” he has told her.
Kelly — who got married to Matthew in 2015 after meeting during their time at the University of Georgia — has also previously spoken about the difficulties of traveling with her four daughters to their dad’s away games.
Last month, Kelly detailed the “hell” of getting all of her girls ready for a flight to Philadelphia to see the Rams play the Eagles after all four of her daughters had soccer games on the same day.
“We get to the airport and I have to shower all of them,” Kelly said on the September 23 episode of her podcast. “A lot of hair when you have four girls.”
She added, “It clogs the drains. It does all the bad stuff. And it takes a f*** ton of time.”
Despite the franticness, Kelly gave kudos to her daughters for being good troopers on the road.
“I don’t give them enough credit,” she admitted. “They were fantastic this whole trip, even with the minor mishaps and mommy being stressed out.”
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Daniel Trainor
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Watching Theo Von Process a Very Long Week—and Year
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“I think it’s been a lot of nerves this year, week.”
After a couple of false starts at Manhattan’s Beacon Theater during a taping for an upcoming Netflix special, his first of two recordings on Saturday night, the comedian Theo Von was starting to find his rhythm. As a podcaster, Von has become in the last year a sought-out interviewer for A-list actors and musicians, and so recognizable as a political entity that the Department of Homeland Security momentarily made him the face of its immigration crackdown this week.
“Heard you got deported dude, bye,” Von says in a clip included in a sizzle reel that the agency posted on X.
“Yooo DHS i didnt approve to be used in this. I know you know my address so send a check,” Von wrote in response. “And please take this down and please keep me out of your ‘banger’ deportation videos. When it comes to immigration my thoughts and heart are alot more nuanced than this video allows. Bye!” (DHS soon removed the post.)
Such are the complications of Von’s unusual and somewhat headspinning role in a new media mainstream. As the host of This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von, he had already established himself as a leading voice in the space when Donald Trump appeared on his show during his campaign last year. Soon, Von was attending the inauguration, having dinner with Jared Kushner and Ivanka in Miami and accompanying the president to Qatar to perform for U.S. servicemembers. (“I’m on TMZ right now having a bar fight in Nashville,” Von told the audience. “So I think you guys caught me on a tough week for peace, man.”)
The searching, mystic quality of Von’s interview style brought something new out of Trump—a startled and seemingly genuine inquiry into the potency of cocaine. In his standup, though, Von is tasked with filling space rather than creating it. On stage, he was comparatively punchy, and aware that the crowd likely knew him first from his hours-long conversations on YouTube.
“Most of y’all never seen me walk before,” Von said.
He seemed jittery in a mullet, baggy camouflage pants, and Yeezy sneakers. After briefly taking the stage once, he abandoned the set and started over—only to pick a member of the audience to be kicked out and start over again. (It wasn’t clear from my seat nor from the heated discussion that played out afterwards in the r/TheoVon Reddit forum why this had happened. A representative for Von didn’t return a request for comment.) The crowd, populated by recurring pockets of backwards hats and golf polos and a sprinkling of tattooed interlopers, was predominantly but not exclusively male and not particularly raucous.
“A lot of white people in here,” Von observed.
As he settled in, he worked in his go-to veins: race, his childhood. Von grew up outside New Orleans and has said he was legally emancipated at 14 years old. “We didn’t have any Jews growing up,” he said on Saturday. “Couldn’t afford a Jew.” His comedy typically punches sideways, less moralistic or aggressive than personal. A Cold Stone Creamery where he worked as a teenager amid a band of misfits, he said, was the “Underground Railroad for autism.”
Still, for all the hours of podcasting and stand-up, Von has maintained an elusiveness. It was difficult to imagine him processing on stage the influence and soft power he has acquired. Instead, as he approached the end of his set, he returned to a now-familiar mode of troubled vulnerability. Lacking love in both his childhood and adult life, Von said, “sometimes the only way I can feel is in front of other people.”
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Dan Adler
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‘Seattle News Weekly’: School shooting concerns
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SEATTLE – Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens ages one to 19-years-old in the United States, according to Every Town for Gun Safety.
On the seventh episode of the “Seattle News Weekly” podcast, FOX 13 Seattle anchors Erin Mayovsky and John Hopperstad talk about the threat of school shootings and what laws Washington state has passed in hopes of limiting the number of deadly incidents.
Earlier this month, police arrested a 13-year-old from Pierce County for making mass shooting threats online. The 13-year-old boy is charged with unlawful possession of a gun, unlawful possession of fireworks and threats toward a school.
On the podcast, Mayovsky and Hopperstad talked about concerns surrounding this case, specifically questioning how he had access to the guns. Investigators found 23 guns, many 3-D printed and untraceable, in his home, along with evidence of his obsession with past mass shooters, including imitating and idolizing them.
They further discussed the statistics surrounding gun violence and youth in the country and around the state of Washington. Mayovsky said in an average year, 935 people die from guns in Washington alone.
They discussed the differences between gun control laws in the United States and compared them to other countries. Specifically, in Australia, where the National Firearms Agreement (NFA) was implemented in 1996, following the Port Arthur massacre, which banned certain semi-automatic and pump-action firearms, established a buyback program, created a national firearms registry and introduced strict licensing and waiting periods for gun ownership.
The podcast concluded with a lighter topic, where they discussed the celebration surrounding the Seattle Mariners and their clinching of the AL West Division, Cal Raleigh’s legacy and the overall morale between fans and the community.
Join us every Thursday to stay up to date on weekly news around the area.
Seattle News Weekly is a podcast that goes in depth and gives context to the stories that matter to the western Washington community. Check back every Thursday for a new episode on your favorite podcast platform, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, Amazon Music, TuneIn and Audible, or YouTube.
The Source: Information in this story came from original FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle newsletter.
Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national news.
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Annabelle.Pepin@fox.com (Annabelle Pepin)
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Is Silicon Valley Still the Tech Capital?
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On this special episode of Uncanny Valley recorded in front of a live audience in San Francisco, our hosts discuss Silicon Valley’s history and future.
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Lauren Goode, Katie Drummond, Jason Kehe
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‘Seattle News Weekly’: Renton’s abandoned building, hate crimes
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SEATTLE – The city of Renton has received criticism from community members this week, due to safety hazards in abandoned buildings. Additionally, this week, a serious hate crime occurred in Renton, involving teenagers who chased and beat a transgender woman.
On episode six of the “Seattle News Weekly” podcast, FOX 13 Seattle Anchor David Rose and Renton Mayor Armando Pavone discuss a former Boeing office building that has become a safety hazard and sparked local businesses’ frustrations due to vandalism and squatting, along with a recent attack on a transgender woman in Renton and how the region is planning to prepare for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
On the podcast, Rose asked Mayor Pavone about the costs of this building, both pertaining to the dollar amount of fines the city has implemented on the property and surrounding businesses’ costs for security and fixes. Pavone said that once the property owners saw the fines increased to $3.5 million, it got their attention.
They further discussed the legal steps the city of Renton would need to take in order to properly help the situation, ethically and legally.
Earlier this week, four young men in Renton were arrested in connection with a hate crime assault of a transgender woman. The woman said young men were harassing a security guard, which led her to ask them, “Don’t you have anything better to do?”
Later that evening, the woman was walking back through the area, when two of the teenage brothers chased down and beat her near the Renton Transit Center Monday evening.
On the podcast, Mayor Pavone said, “We need to take a stronger stance.”
The podcast concluded with a discussion over the regional approach for the large influx of visitors for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. According to the mayor, the whole county is coming up with a plan to make the event as enjoyable for visitors as possible.
Join us every Thursday to stay up to date on weekly news around the area.
Seattle News Weekly is a podcast that goes in depth and gives context to the stories that matter to the western Washington community. Check back every Thursday for a new episode on your favorite podcast platform, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, Amazon Music, TuneIn and Audible, or YouTube.
The Source: Information in this story came from original FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle newsletter.
Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national news.
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Annabelle.Pepin@fox.com (Annabelle Pepin)
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Kathleen Kane, convicted former Pa. attorney general, says new podcast will teach about ‘resilience’
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Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who was convicted of perjury in 2016 after a wide-ranging scandal rocked state politics, will launch a new podcast on Tuesday to discuss her journey since exiting office.
Kane teased her new show, “Through the HurriKANE,” with a recorded message posted on Instagram.
MORE: Montgomery County man who shipped fake Xanax sentenced to 4 years in prison
“Have you ever looked down and seen the pieces of your life on the floor — and wondered what happened?” Kane asks. “You haven’t just been through a storm. You’ve been through a hurricane. Sometimes we think that we’ll never have joy. We’ll never have love again. We’ll never have a normal life again.”
Kane, 59, promised the podcast will teach listeners about “resilience, healing and finding hope in the storm.”
In 2012, Kane was elected as Pennsylvania’s first Democrat and first woman to serve as attorney general. The Scranton native entered office as a rising figure in Democratic politics, having earned a key endorsement from former President Bill Clinton after previously working on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.
A promising start to Kane’s term as the state’s top prosecutor unraveled when she was accused of leaking confidential grand jury documents to the Philadelphia Daily News. Prosecutors said Kane shared the documents, which involved a 2009 investigation into the former head of the NAACP in Philadelphia, as an act of vengeance against a pair of rival former state prosecutors. Kane took exception to their own alleged leaks of information about her decision not to charge a group of Philadelphia legislators who had been implicated in a bribery scheme.
During the probe of Kane’s conduct, she was accused of lying to a grand jury tasked with investigating the leaked documents.
In 2015, Kane was charged with perjury, obstructing justice, conspiracy and official oppression. She did not testify at her trial in Montgomery County the next year, and she resigned from office the day after her conviction.
“This case is about ego — the ego of a politician consumed with her image from Day One,” Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy said at the sentencing in Norristown. “This case is about retaliation and revenge against perceived enemies who this defendant … felt had embarrassed her in the press.”
Kane was sentenced to serve 10 to 23 months in prison. After losing her appeal in 2018, she ultimately served eight months in the Montgomery County prison before she was released on five years of probation.
Prosecutors described Kane’s tenure as driven by personal and political vendettas that wore down morale in her office.
The year before Kane was charged, she released nearly 400 pages of emails containing pornographic, racist and misogynistic content that had been shared among high-ranking state officials — including judges and prosecutors — during former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration. The emails were discovered during an internal review of the state’s investigation into Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children at Penn State University. The scandal led to the resignations of several officials, including a former state Supreme Court justice, but was not directly tied to Kane’s own political downfall.
Kane made headlines again in 2022 when she was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after a minor crash with another car in Scranton. She was acquitted later that year.
Kane’s podcast, touted as “the story you didn’t know you needed to hear,” will be available on all major podcast platforms on Tuesday.
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Michael Tanenbaum
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