Show Notes
Call them what you will: hactivists, cypherpunks, phone phreaks, e-bandits… these digital vigilantes may be the last bastions of hope in an Information Age where information is not dispersed equally. Growing from a group of pranksters at MIT in the 50s to the “ultra-coordinated mother-f*ckery” of Anonymous and WikiLeaks today, hactivism uses information technologies to achieve political objectives. With their hyper-sophisticated coding skills, hacktivists do everything from leaking classified documents, to providing oppressed citizenry with military grade encryption. They believe that access to computers should be total, that information should be free, and that anarchy reigns supreme. But ever since Chelsea Manning was discovered smuggling over 400k U.S military documents in a Lady Gaga CD case on behalf of WikiLeaks and governments really began cracking down on these hackers, it became clear that maybe the internet wasn’t the anarchic utopia we thought it was. Tangents include: Maia’s primal hatred of Spotify wrapped, The internet’s unfounded hatred of Geese, and Hannah’s dream of putting Maia on WikiFeet. Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic SOURCES: Maya Jasanoff, “Revenge of the Quiet American,” Foreign Policy, No. 185 (March/April 2011). Steven Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, O’Reilley (1984). Peter Ludlow, “WikiLeaks and Hacktivist Culture,” The Nation (2010). Ty McCormick, “Anthropology of An Idea: Hacktivism,” Foreign Policy, No. 200 (2013). Alasdair Roberts, “The WikiLeaks Illusion,” The Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 3 (SUMMER 2011). Wendy H. Wong and Peter A. Brown, “E-Bandits in Global Activism: WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and the Politics of No One,” Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 11, No. 4 (December 2013).
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What if Greatness in the wizarding world is not achieved by a mastery of magic, but of being really good at reasoning and rationality? Such is the discovery of Harry Potters Evans-Verres, a character dreamed up by fedora-wearing automaton, Eliezer Yudkowsky. Yudkowsky is not only the writer of a popular 660,000 word Harry Potter fan fiction - he also helmed a movement known widely in Silicon Valley as “Rationalism.” And so the Bay Area, which for years has attracted autistic computer engineers and finance bros in gilets working in meaningless start up jobs, has finally discovered a religion to hang its technology on. Their church? A forum website called LessWrong.com, where nerds come together to openly debate their ideas of the future, strategize how to hack their own minds, and hatch a plan to build AI as safely as possible. In this season premiere, Hannah and Maia discuss whether the Rationalist philosophy, which turns every aspect of the human condition into a game of 0s and 1s, is actually paving the way for a better future, or actively destroying it. With such ghouls as Sam Bankman-Fried, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Peter Thiel as its disciples, and a fringe death cult blaming LessWrong for their crimes, one has to think, maybe not? Tangents include: the Lindsay Clancy trial, Hannah’s hard-on for John Oliver, and Maia’s hard-on for John Steinbeck. Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic SOURCES Tara Isabella Burton, “Rational Magic,” The New Atlantis (2023). Greg Epstein, Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, MIT Press (2024). Klint Finley, “Geeks for Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries,” Tech Crunch (2024). Cade Metz, “Silicon Valley’s Safe Space,” The New York Times (2021). Cade Metz, “The Rise of Silicon Valley’s Techno-Religion,” The New York Times (2025). Evan Ratliff, “The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians,” Wired (2025). Emily Shugerman, “This one internet subculture explains murder suspect Luigi Mangione’s odd politics,” San Francisco Standard (2024). Tessa Stuart, “None of the So-Called Zizians Have Told Their Story: Until Now,” Rolling Stone (2026). David Whelan, “The Harry Potter Fan Fiction Author Who Wants to Make Everyone a Little More Rational,” Vice (2015).
You’re twelve. You just got back from a horrific pool party where the boys made fun of your swimsuit. You also just got the news that Michael Jackson died. How are you going to self-soothe? Well, light up that family desktop computer and read some Perez Hilton of course. In his prime, Perez Hilton was something like the Little Finger of Hollywood. Keep him close and he’ll get you into Hyde Lounge, cross him and he’ll share a upskirt photo of you for all the internet to see with a crude drawing of a dick hitting you in the forehead. In this bonus episode, Hannah and Maia discuss Perez Hilton’s meteoric rise into the stratosphere of populist, venomous gossip blogging, and his equally meteoric downfall on the much different internet of today. But one has to ask whether the internet is really as different today as it appears? It seems the guilt of Perez’s shameful past has infiltrated his unconscious and sent him spiralling in a violent and very public crash out. But is the public’s glee at his demise really a fitting punishment to his crimes? Or is Perez simply the golem of an equally venomous public? Tangents include: Maia being the resident bitch of Rehash, and Hannah’s dream show: Vanderpump Rules in Space. Full episode on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast/posts/bonus-perez-171020042
Can AI have taste? Such is the question trend forecaster Emily Segal, progenitor of “normcore,” set out to ask in a recent Substack post. In her comprehension breakdown of the concept, Segal asserts that to possess the intangible essence of good taste, one must be discerning, idiosyncratic, and be able to recognize patterns. Good taste, for Segal, is not a numbers game. It cannot simply be aggregated. But how do we account for bad taste? Such is the question Hannah and Maia set out to ask. They’re joined by the hosts of the Polyester podcast, Ione Gamble and Gina Tonic, whose recent collection of essays, The Polyester Book of (Bad) Taste, may just have all the answers. What if Maia loves Showgirls? What if Ione likes My Chemical Romance? If bad taste is low culture, how do we explain Rick Owens? If good taste is high culture, how do we explain everyone owning the same chrome coffee table? Find out about this and more in this extra special bonus episode, available in full on Patreon. Full bonus episode on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/rehashpodcast
Imagine a world where you can bet on anything. Celebrity breakups? Bet. Oil prices changing with the winds? Bet on it. Foreign leaders deposed seemingly out of nowhere? Bet on that too. Ballistic missile strikes? Go for it. In this Patreon bonus episode, Hannah and Maia cover Polymarket and Kalshi - not quite prediction markets, not quite gambling websites, where users are encouraged to “bet on their beliefs”. If there was ever a sign of the times, it would be this. As gambling addiction skyrockets among younger and younger demographics, and governments scramble to regulate, Polymarket and Kalshi are doubling down via influencer marketing campaigns and college campus merch. They also justify their existence with a troubling philosophy: that money speaks to truth. But with only a tiny number of accounts collecting the majority of the profits, and certain users betting correctly on once-impossible odds, one has to wonder whether “truth” was ever the objective. Tangents include: a review of Backrooms. FULL episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast
Shakespeare, Picasso, Tom Sandoval… what do these luminaries have in common? Well, reader. They were cheaters. Adultery has been a flash point on the internet for some time now - from Ned Fulmer, to Couch Guy, to that couple at the Coldplay concert, people seem to hold particular venom for those who get caught cheating. So it’s hard to believe that only a couple decades ago, there was a dating site dedicated to the act of cheating. In this finale episode, Hannah and Maia revisit the phenomenon that was Ashley Madison, a service developed in Toronto where those looking for infidelity could find a parent in crime with the click of a button. But after a massive data breach, broken marriages, and even deaths - Ashley Madison fell quickly from “grace.” In the years since Ashley Madison’s users were doxxed and shamed, even since Hester Prynne was brandished with a scarlet “A,” one has to wonder why this age-old act has not received more nuance as society has progressed. What is cheating, what even is romantic love, and have we given both of these things a little too much power? Tangents include: Toronto girl summer, Drake as the groundhog from Groundhog Day, sage advice from the oracle Esther Perel. Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills: https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic