Creative Complaint

Tech journalist and User Magazine founder Taylor Lorenz joins host Dani Loftus to complain about the people who fetishize being offline, sanctimonious VCs funding slop gambling apps, and Amy Schumer. They explore why every new technology triggers moral panic (remember when landlines caused divorce?), the young conservative grifter playbook getting Koch Foundation funding, and why the internet was actually liberatory before the right seized power on it. Taylor breaks down why touchscreens in washing machines are surveillance capitalism, the difference between productive complaining and men complaining about uppity women, and why the left needs to get educated on tech policy before it's too late.
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User Magazine
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01:32 — People who fetishize being offline: "I waste time the old-fashioned way"
03:39 — Moral panic through history: landlines caused 9/10 divorces
04:07 — Productive complaining: targeting systems and powerful people
06:01 — The young conservative grifter playbook and Koch Foundation money
09:15 — Break up big tech, pass data privacy reform, or shut up about your personal brand
11:31 — Dating ick: people who never ask questions
12:18 — Food ick: dairy is disgusting and the industry is evil
17:17 — Technology ick: touchscreens in cars, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners
19:39 — Ick of the week: VCs being sanctimonious while funding slop
22:49 — Why the left is less technologically literate than the right
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Our music, Stamford Brook Style, is by Adrian Michna.

Strategy executive and self-described capital H hater Nick Susi joins host Dani Loftus to explore the art of dispassionate curiosity and the illusions that dominate creative industries. Nick unpacks why distance creates clarity, how the internet tricks us into thinking we need to know everything about Dubai chocolate, and why so many talented people write essays about world-building instead of actually building worlds. They discuss the false war between TikTok green screen strategists and academic researchers, the size-weight illusion that makes everyone think they can juggle, and why trust hasn't collapsed at all—it's just transferred to random strangers on the internet.
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Nick's website
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01:58 — Dispassionate curiosity aka observing without getting wound up
04:50 — Why rage bait proves we care about too many things
07:41 — Would Tolkien have written LOTR or just had a Substack?
09:43 — The size-weight illusion and why everyone online thinks they can juggle
12:01 — The false war between TikTok strategists and academic researchers
16:06 — The best ideas are formless and travel like mind viruses
17:34 — Dating ick: people who can't communicate their desires
19:41 — Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation in Japan vs America
21:14 — Technology ick: bragging about being terminally online
22:41 — Using social media like a shotgun instead of a sniper rifle
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Our music, Stamford Brook Style, is by Adrian Michna.

Actor, comedian, and writer Sydney Battle joins host Dani Loftus to discuss the icks that drive her creative life. Sydney opens up about navigating rejection in Hollywood, where celebrities now take tiny parts that once went to rising actors.
They explore tactful complaining versus toxic positivity, the relatability trap that makes celebrities build airport pillow forts and why people need to just say "excuse me."
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Sydney's Instagram
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00:59 — Don't tell people who they look like (unless it's the hottest person alive)
06:09 — "Honesty without tact is just cruelty"
06:47 — Toxic positivity and the 16-page audition complaint
08:31 — When celebrities get the part you auditioned for
09:20 — Separating career opportunities from talent to stay sane
10:52 — When your happy side quest becomes your main career
12:19 — Post-strike scarcity: celebrities taking two-scene parts
14:34 — Dating ick: low effort and people who don't value you correctly
17:28 — Celebrities need to stop trying to be relatable
18:51 — Jessica Chastain's valid complaint vs. Kristen Bell's airport fort
24:46 — Just say "excuse me"
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Our music, Stamford Brook Style, is by Adrian Michna.

Writer and comedian Sophia Benoit joins Dani Loftus to discuss the art of complaining as a form of connection. They touch on texture-based food aversions, surveillance culture, and people who take jokes too literally online. Also, we learn what a "rat room" is.
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Sophia's podcast
Sophia's website
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00:00 — What is this podcast
00:54 — How Sophia doesn't like talking about herself (despite writing a memoir)
02:20 — Sophia's approach to complaining and how it got her all her jobs
04:11 — European-style complaining as connection, not misery
05:29 — Biggest industry ick: pretending writing is hard work
07:41 — When your dentist wants to discuss your sex writing career
08:00 — How writing about relationships affects personal expectations
12:27 — Is messiness a personality trait or a diagnosis?
14:15 — Being seen as negative online when you're actually positive
15:00 — The wealthy patron system vs. needing hundreds of thousands of followers
17:42 — The guy in Ohio who thinks you're the worst person alive
18:16 — "Can they eat you?" Sophia's grandfather's motto for anxiety
18:41 — Good morning texts...ick
19:47 — Cottage cheese and other aversions
21:11 — American individualism and pretending cities are that different
22:39 — Surveillance culture
24:38 — People taking jokes too literally online and explaining things back
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Our music, Stamford Brook Style, is by Adrian Michna.

Writer and editor Greta Rainbow joins host Dani Loftus for a tour through the icks that shape her taste: from airplane armrest invasions to cagey creatives, hidden gluten, weak PDA, celebrity beverage empires, and a deeply cursed Homeland Security tweet.
They dig into gossip as community protection, transparency in the creative economy, why the literary world runs on shame, and how momentum truly works (“like a 15-year-old boy”). Plus: dating icks, tech icks, virtue icks, environmental icks, and Greta’s Ick of the Week.
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00:00 — Welcome to Creative Complaint
00:55 — “Sir, Turn Off Your Phone”
04:50 — Complaining as High Art
05:30 — The Gospel of Gossip as Public Service
10:00 — Lack of $$$ Transparency
11:30 — Shame, Sales, and the Literary Hunger Games
12:40 — Momentum Is a 15-Year-Old Boy
15:00 — Earnest America vs. Irony-Pilled New York
16:00 — Best Friends After Two Hangs? Immediate Red Flag
17:00 — The Affection Olympics
18:45 — Bad vs. Good PDA
19:15 — Hidden Gluten, Hidden Rage
20:20 — New Yorkers, Please Learn to Recycle
21:50 — Emma Chamberlain Should Start a Publishing House, Actually
24:15 — Rejection as a Luxury Commodity
27:20 — Fascism: Final Boss Ick
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Our music, Stamford Brook Style, is by Adrian Michna.