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Speaker 1: You're listening to Disinformed, a mini series from There Are

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Speaker 1: No Girls on the Internet. I'm Bridget Todd, So I

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Speaker 1: usually try to avoid calling out specific bad actors who

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Speaker 1: spread myths and disinformation because I think of it as

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Speaker 1: a systemic problem. It isn't usually about one specific person

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Speaker 1: spreading bad information, and I want to make sure we

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Speaker 1: keep the focus on the people and institutions with power

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Speaker 1: who could actually do something about it, like tech leaders

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Speaker 1: and policymakers. But that said, I have someone who I

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Speaker 1: kind of think of as my misinformation white whale that

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Speaker 1: I just had to talk about today, and that person

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Speaker 1: is Gwyneth Paltrow. So here's what's going down. Mecca is

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Speaker 1: kind of like Australia's Sephora. It's a huge retailer that

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Speaker 1: sells beauty and wellness products. But all was not well

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Speaker 1: last week when they announced that Gwyneth Paltrow would be

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Speaker 1: the keynote speaker for their virtual summit Mecca Life. Mecca

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Speaker 1: customers were not pleased, and many of them took to

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Speaker 1: social media to let the brand know. Paltrow and goog

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Speaker 1: pedal enormous amounts of misinformation and make money by praying

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Speaker 1: on women's insecurities. Surgeon and author Nicki Stamp wrote on

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Speaker 1: the events Facebook page, every time we endorse his behavior,

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Speaker 1: we allow it to continue. Mecca has always been a

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Speaker 1: champion for women, So now, when women are at risk,

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Speaker 1: will you step up to the plate and cancel this

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Speaker 1: terrible event or will you let Australian women be further

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Speaker 1: exposed to her nonsense. Mecca is not backing down. Beauty

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Speaker 1: and wellness mean different things to different people. Our schedule

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Speaker 1: of events to launch Mecca Life has been carefully curated

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Speaker 1: to offer something new, interesting and innovative for everyone, they

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Speaker 1: said in a statement online. Mecca turned off the comments

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Speaker 1: on their social media posts, which is always how you

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Speaker 1: know stuff that's gotten really tense. Now, even though I

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Speaker 1: loved her as Margot Tannenbaum from The Royal Tannon Bombs,

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Speaker 1: what what if Paltrow was doing is really gross and

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Speaker 1: we hardly ever point out how gross it actually is.

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Speaker 1: Because she's rich and famous with her wellness brand Goop,

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Speaker 1: Paltrow has preyed on women's insecurities to make money by

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Speaker 1: peddling so called cures that are dubious at best and

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Speaker 1: dangerous at worse. Here's a very short list of some

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Speaker 1: of the nonsense she's peddled on her site. She said

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Speaker 1: that fasting and herbs could help alleviate the symptoms of COVID,

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Speaker 1: and eventually the National Health Service had to ask her

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Speaker 1: to stop spreading COVID misinformation. A piece on Goop says

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Speaker 1: that Gwyneth swears by a practice called grounding or earthing,

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Speaker 1: which is basically just walking around barefoot outside to cure depression,

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Speaker 1: which I find so offensive and I think anybody who's

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Speaker 1: ever suffered her many kind of mental health issue probably

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Speaker 1: would too. She promotes the healing powers of national steaming,

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Speaker 1: which gynecologist Dr Jen Gunter, one of my favorite medical

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Speaker 1: misinformation slayers, points out in her book The Vagina Bible

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Speaker 1: has No Benefit, promotes a serious misunderstanding of anatomy and physiology,

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Speaker 1: and has the potential to harm. So in short, it's

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Speaker 1: a scape him. Not only that, but it could actually

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Speaker 1: hurt your vagina. A woman in Canada had to be

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Speaker 1: treated for second degree burns to her cervix and national

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Speaker 1: membranes after trying to steam her own v Please do

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Speaker 1: not do that to your vagina out and never forget

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Speaker 1: that when it first got into the wellness world, by

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Speaker 1: selling jade eggs for people to shove up their vaginas

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Speaker 1: for a whopping seventy dollars a pop under the completely

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Speaker 1: untrue claim that doing so could help balance your hormones.

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Speaker 1: And this is really my thing. As you can probably

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Speaker 1: see from When's obsession with our vaginas, her brand is

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Speaker 1: clearly about convincing women that something is wrong with our bodies.

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Speaker 1: And Goop is a for profit company, meaning she makes

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Speaker 1: money off of trying to convince us that we need

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Speaker 1: to do whatever nonsense thing or buy whatever nonsense products

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Speaker 1: she's selling to fix it. It's not just dangerous, it's

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Speaker 1: also wildly anti feminist. Your body is fine, Your vagina

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Speaker 1: is fine, trust me, it does not need to be steamed.

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Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, this is not about me

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Speaker 1: not liking woo woo wellness stuff. Honestly, I wish I

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Speaker 1: could say I was too cool to be taken by

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Speaker 1: useless tincture as I see on Instagram ads like I

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Speaker 1: put mushroom Anthogin's in my tea every morning to boost

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Speaker 1: my focus. Does it work? Probably not. But there's a

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Speaker 1: big difference between being open to alternative wellness treatments and

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Speaker 1: straight up profiting off of misinformation, and that's what Gwyneth

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Speaker 1: Paltrow is doing. In addition to her editorial website Goop

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Speaker 1: and selling merchandise, Gwen has a Netflix show called The

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Speaker 1: Goop Lab and an all inclusive luxury cruise called Goop

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Speaker 1: at Sea, which promises guests the opportunity to engage with

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Speaker 1: Gwyneth Paltrow and Q and A's with their very best healers.

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Speaker 1: And I don't know how much it costs, but I

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Speaker 1: can just tell by looking at the website it's probably

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Speaker 1: not cheap. So Gwen has turned to misinformation into a

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Speaker 1: huge empire. But women deserve better than having someone pedal

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Speaker 1: lies about our bodies to make a quick buck. And honestly,

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Speaker 1: I am so happy to see so many women in

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Speaker 1: Australia making their voices heard and say they don't want

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Speaker 1: to support a brand like Mecca that would associate with

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Speaker 1: someone who is basically just a very well dressed scammer.

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Speaker 1: If a brand is okay with the kind of bs

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Speaker 1: that Gwenna SELLI that brand should not be considered reputable.

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Speaker 1: We deserve better than someone making money off align to

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Speaker 1: us and calling an empowerment just because Gwyneth Paltrow was

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Speaker 1: an A list celebrity who exudes a kind of unattainable

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Speaker 1: yet effortless glow. Doesn't mean that she's still not just

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Speaker 1: a scammer. And I hope what we're seeing in Australia

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Speaker 1: means today is today that people stop tolerating it and

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Speaker 1: start calling it out for what it is. Great news, Tan, goodie, fam.

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Speaker 1: We won a Shorty Award for Best Podcast Mini Series.

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Speaker 1: Major shout outs to my amazing and producers. Sorry Jonathan

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Speaker 1: and Mike, And not to get too sappy, but I

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Speaker 1: want to genuinely thank you, Yes you person listening in

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Speaker 1: the car, or listening in the gym, or listening on

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Speaker 1: the trainer or whatever. Thank you to everyone who listens, subscribed,

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Speaker 1: told a friend, left a review, sent me an email,

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Speaker 1: tweeted at me, or just said this is an okay podcast,

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Speaker 1: silently to themselves as they listened. All of it. All

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Speaker 1: of it means so much to me. It is so

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Speaker 1: important that we center women and marginalize people's experiences when

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Speaker 1: we talk about the Internet. And it has been a

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Speaker 1: blast doing it with all of you. I can't tell

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Speaker 1: you how much I appreciate it, and I really thank you.

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Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this podcast, please help us grow by subscribing.

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Speaker 1: Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or

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Speaker 1: just want to say hi. We'd love to hear from

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Speaker 1: you at Hello at tangoi dot com. Disinformed is brought

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Speaker 1: to you by There Are No Girls on the Internet.

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Speaker 1: It's a production of iHeart Radio and Unbossed creative Jonathan

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Speaker 1: Strickland as our executive producer. Tary Harrison is our supervising producer,

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Speaker 1: and engineer. Michael Lamato is our contributing producer. I'm your

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Speaker 1: host Bridget Toad. For more great podcasts, check out the

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Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 1: A