Why does it feel like the main voices dominating tech today are basically super villains? Billionaires who don’t care if the world gets worse, just as long as they get a little richer.

We hear them everywhere— their bad ideas, their grievances are all amplified. 

Anil Dash, one of the internet’s earliest voices, says it didn’t used to be this way. He's been a highly visible and impactful techie, writer, and entrepreneur for decades. In this thoughtful, wide-ranging, and optimistic interview, he talks with Bridget about how fun and personal the early Internet was, why tech bros keep making it worse, and how we can create a better Internet that once again centers fun, compassion, and human connection.  

 

If you’re listening on Spotify, leave a comment there to let us know what you thought about this interview, or email us at hello@tangoti.com!

 

Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week ||  instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc ||  youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet 

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why does it feel like the main voices dominating tech today are basically super villains? Billionaires who don&rsquo;t care if the world gets worse, just as long as they get a little richer.
We hear them everywhere&mdash; their bad ideas, their grievances are all amplified.&nbsp;
Anil Dash, one of the internet&rsquo;s earliest voices, says it didn&rsquo;t used to be this way. He's been a highly visible and impactful techie, writer, and entrepreneur for decades. In this thoughtful, wide-ranging, and optimistic interview, he talks with Bridget about how fun and personal the early Internet was, why tech bros keep making it worse, and how we can create a better Internet that once again centers fun, compassion, and human connection.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;
If you&rsquo;re listening on Spotify, leave a comment there to let us know what you thought about this interview, or email us at <a href="mailto:hello@tangoti.com">hello@tangoti.com</a>!
&nbsp;
Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week ||&nbsp; instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc ||&nbsp; youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet&nbsp;
&nbsp;
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marginalized voices have always been at the forefront of the internet, yet our stories often go overlooked. Bridget Todd chronicles our experiences online, and the ways marginalized voices have shaped the internet from the very beginning. We need monuments to all of the identities that make being online what it is. So let’s build them.

There Are No Girls on the Internet

 The Internet Wasn’t Always Run by Villains. Anil Dash Explains What Happened 

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/d5147f2c-645b-4d24-b7ac-b345016309ac/transcript

The girlboss era promised that if women just worked hard enough, leaned in hard enough, optimized hard enough, equality was within reach. It wasn't. And now, a decade later, the same voices are back with the same urgency and the same "you'll be left behind" framing. The product this time? AI.

Bridget sits down with Samantha and Anney from Stuff Mom Never Told You to talk about why Sheryl Sandberg, Reese Witherspoon, Mel Robbins, and the original girlboss herself Sophia Amoruso are all suddenly very invested in getting women onto AI platforms and why the women who aren't rushing to adopt it might actually be the ones paying closest attention.

 

 

Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify. 

Bridget's forthcoming audiobook with Simon & Schuster, Love At First Prompt, explores AI, sex, and intimate relationships. Pre-order at LoveAtFirstPrompt.ai

Follow Bridget: Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Bluesky

The girlboss era promised that if women just worked hard enough, leaned in hard enough, optimized hard enough, equality was within reach. It wasn't. And now, a decade later, the same voices are back with the same urgency and the same "you'll be left behind" framing. The product this time? AI.
Bridget sits down with Samantha and Anney from Stuff Mom Never Told You to talk about why Sheryl Sandberg, Reese Witherspoon, Mel Robbins, and the original girlboss herself Sophia Amoruso are all suddenly very invested in getting women onto AI platforms and why the women who aren't rushing to adopt it might actually be the ones paying closest attention.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.&nbsp;
Bridget's forthcoming audiobook with Simon &amp; Schuster, Love At First Prompt, explores AI, sex, and intimate relationships. Pre-order at LoveAtFirstPrompt.ai
Follow Bridget: Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Bluesky

 Girlboss Is Back And This Time She's Selling You AI

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/fe21d293-ba4a-4675-8e0e-b45d010be122/transcript

There Are No Girls on the Internet is a weekly podcast hosted by Bridget Todd. Every week, we break down the tech and internet stories that deserve more attention — especially when they're about AI, power, gender, race, and who actually gets hurt when systems fail.

This week: Elon Musk using a Hollywood casting decision to push white nationalist conspiracy theories. The government is surveilling people who oppose data centers as potential terrorists. The DOJ is going after a billionaire who helped fund E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit against Trump. And researchers who study online hate speech being threatened with deportation.

If that sounds like your thing — Apple Podcasts | Spotify | and come back every week.

HERE’S WHAT WE’RE WATCHING THIS WEEK: 

🔗 Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is partnering with Jared Leto — a man with nine sexual abuse allegations — to scan people's eyeballs. Altman's company World has already been banned in multiple countries for exploiting people in impoverished nations for their biometric data. Now it's partnering with Jared Leto — who has nine sexual abuse allegations against him, including behavior toward a minor — to scan fans' irises to buy concert tickets. Altman himself has also faced his own sexual misconduct allegation.

🔗 Lupita Nyong'o was cast as Helen of Troy. Elon Musk is using it to push white nationalist conspiracy theories. Christopher Nolan cast Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy in The Odyssey. Musk spent days melting down about it. Experts say it's the "great replacement" theory — a white nationalist belief that white people are being deliberately replaced by people of color — applied to a casting decision.

🔗 The government is now surveilling people who oppose AI and data centers as potential extremists. Leaked documents show the FBI and Homeland Security have created a new threat category called "anti-tech extremism." A nonprofit called More Perfect Union made a video about the harm data centers cause to communities — nothing illegal, nothing violent. The feds flagged it as a potential terrorist threat. Meanwhile Trump, his sons, and his administration all have direct financial stakes in AI data center expansion.

🔗 The DOJ is trying to unmask anonymous Reddit and X users who criticized ICE. Jeanine Pirro's office has subpoenaed Reddit and X for the names, addresses, and financial data of users who made negative comments about ICE online. No charges have been filed. No one has been notified.

🔗 A federal investigation has been opened into the tech billionaire who funded E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit against Trump. He says it's retaliation. Reid Hoffman donated money to support Carroll's sexual abuse and defamation lawsuits — lawsuits a jury ruled in her favor. Now those donations are under federal criminal investigation. Hoffman says Trump is using the government to silence anyone who supports women who speak up against him.

🔗 Meta keeps deleting LGBTQ+ accounts with no explanation. Now they're getting sued. Queer nightclubs, magazines, and sexual health organizations kept waking up to find their Instagram accounts gone — no warning, no explanation, no real way to appeal. Global nonprofit Repro Uncensored and a coalition of Dutch LGBTQ+ organizations are taking Meta to court for discrimination in the first case to use the EU's Digital Services Act to challenge discriminatory content moderation by a major platform.

🔗 The Trump administration is threatening to deport researchers who study online hate speech. A lawsuit just hit federal court. The government can now deny or revoke visas for foreign nationals who do trust and safety research, fact-checking, and content moderation work — framing it as protecting Americans from "censorship." Researchers have already left the country, stopped publishing, and self-censored. The Coalition for Independent Technology Research just sued to stop it.

🔗 The Department of Labor told employees to report coworkers for DEI activities — going back three years before Trump even took office. Employees could be reported for DEI work that was literally required by their job under the previous administration. One employee called it "pure witch-hunt territory."

🔗 A study found that when men and women use AI for their resumes, women get judged way more harshly — even when the resumes are identical. Researchers created identical resumes for "Emily Clarke" and "James Clarke." Emily was twice as likely to have her competence questioned. Reviewers said James "just needed help." They said Emily "can't even write a CV herself."

🔗 86% of the workers most likely to lose their jobs to AI are women. They're being told to just figure it out. Administrative assistants — one of the most female-dominated fields in the country — are racing to learn AI out of fear, not enthusiasm. If they use it, they get called lazy. If they don't, they risk being automated out of a job. Employers are giving them no plan.

🔗 Software engineering is being transformed by AI and new mothers are being left behind. Women who took maternity leave in 2024 came back to jobs that had been completely transformed by AI. One woman sent out 40 applications and got one interview. She's now considering landscape architecture.

🔗 The White House launched a website comparing immigrants to aliens. It listed over 700 American citizens as people who were arrested. The arrest counter on the homepage is completely fake and runs on a timer. The data listed over 700 American-born citizens as arrestees. The site appears to be using a pirated X-Files theme song. This is a real government website.

🔗 Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube agreed to pay a Kentucky school district $27 million for harming kids. Over 1,300 school districts have sued social media companies for deliberately creating addictive products that cause depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicide in young users. They settled for a fraction of what was demanded, made no admission of wrongdoing, and walked away. Bloomberg estimates all the lawsuits combined could cost them $400 billion.

🔗 Most Americans don't want data centers in their communities. Women oppose them the most. A new Gallup poll found more than two thirds of Americans oppose data centers. Women oppose them more intensely than men and are leading the fight in communities across the country — because they bear the most direct environmental and health costs.

🔗 A Google engineer misused confidential internal data to gamble on Polymarket and made $1.2 million. The FBI caught him. He had access to data showing which celebrities would top Google's most searched list before it went public, placed $2.7 million in bets on Polymarket, and won with near-perfect accuracy.

🔗 AI is still getting things wrong — it's just gotten much better at sounding confident while doing it. When people pushed back on wrong answers in one study, the AI responded with flattery instead of corrections. Experts call it a "plausibility engine" not a truth engine.

🔗 People are building their own technology and rejecting the version Silicon Valley is selling. A growing movement of women, queer people, and artists are building custom devices from salvaged parts — and imagining a version of technology that serves communities instead of extracting from them.

Want to hear us break these stories down? There Are No Girls on the Internet drops a new episode every Friday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

🎧 Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.

Bridget's forthcoming audiobook with Simon & Schuster, Love At First Prompt, explores AI, sex, and intimate relationships. Pre-order at LoveAtFirstPrompt.ai

Follow Bridget: Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Bluesky

There Are No Girls on the Internet is a weekly podcast hosted by Bridget Todd. Every week, we break down the tech and internet stories that deserve more attention &mdash; especially when they're about AI, power, gender, race, and who actually gets hurt when systems fail.
This week: Elon Musk using a Hollywood casting decision to push white nationalist conspiracy theories. The government is surveilling people who oppose data centers as potential terrorists. The DOJ is going after a billionaire who helped fund E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit against Trump. And researchers who study online hate speech being threatened with deportation.
If that sounds like your thing &mdash;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet/id1520715907"> Apple Podcasts</a> |<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4v7u3AEIf0UUp50UAGVn4S"> Spotify</a> | and come back every week.
HERE&rsquo;S WHAT WE&rsquo;RE WATCHING THIS WEEK:&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4v7u3AEIf0UUp50UAGVn4S"></a>
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://futurism.com/future-society/sam-altman-worldcoin-jared-leto">Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is partnering with Jared Leto &mdash; a man with nine sexual abuse allegations &mdash; to scan people's eyeballs.</a>&nbsp;Altman's company World has already been banned in multiple countries for exploiting people in impoverished nations for their biometric data. Now it's partnering with Jared Leto &mdash; who has nine sexual abuse allegations against him, including behavior toward a minor &mdash; to scan fans' irises to buy concert tickets. Altman himself has also faced his own sexual misconduct allegation.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-lupita-nyongo-in-the-odyssey_l_6a0ca9fde4b0ceb40d47cc6a">Lupita Nyong'o was cast as Helen of Troy. Elon Musk is using it to push white nationalist conspiracy theories.</a>&nbsp;Christopher Nolan cast Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy in The Odyssey. Musk spent days melting down about it. Experts say it's the "great replacement" theory &mdash; a white nationalist belief that white people are being deliberately replaced by people of color &mdash; applied to a casting decision.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/us-law-enforcement-warns-of-anti-tech-extremism/">The government is now surveilling people who oppose AI and data centers as potential extremists.</a>&nbsp;Leaked documents show the FBI and Homeland Security have created a new threat category called "anti-tech extremism." A nonprofit called More Perfect Union made a video about the harm data centers cause to communities &mdash; nothing illegal, nothing violent. The feds flagged it as a potential terrorist threat. Meanwhile Trump, his sons, and his administration all have direct financial stakes in AI data center expansion.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-28/trump-s-doj-ramps-up-probes-of-anonymous-ice-critics-with-x-reddit-subpoenas">The DOJ is trying to unmask anonymous Reddit and X users who criticized ICE.</a>&nbsp;Jeanine Pirro's office has subpoenaed Reddit and X for the names, addresses, and financial data of users who made negative comments about ICE online. No charges have been filed. No one has been notified.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/30/reid-hoffman-e-jean-carroll-justice-department-investigation">A federal investigation has been opened into the tech billionaire who funded E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit against Trump. He says it's retaliation.</a>&nbsp;Reid Hoffman donated money to support Carroll's sexual abuse and defamation lawsuits &mdash; lawsuits a jury ruled in her favor. Now those donations are under federal criminal investigation. Hoffman says Trump is using the government to silence anyone who supports women who speak up against him.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reprouncensored.org/research-overview/meta-legal-action">Meta keeps deleting LGBTQ+ accounts with no explanation. Now they're getting sued.</a>&nbsp;Queer nightclubs, magazines, and sexual health organizations kept waking up to find their Instagram accounts gone &mdash; no warning, no explanation, no real way to appeal. Global nonprofit Repro Uncensored and a coalition of Dutch LGBTQ+ organizations are taking Meta to court for discrimination in the first case to use the EU's Digital Services Act to challenge discriminatory content moderation by a major platform.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/05/21/1137632/lawsuit-trump-administration-online-safety-coalition-for-independent-technology-research/">The Trump administration is threatening to deport researchers who study online hate speech. A lawsuit just hit federal court.</a>&nbsp;The government can now deny or revoke visas for foreign nationals who do trust and safety research, fact-checking, and content moderation work &mdash; framing it as protecting Americans from "censorship." Researchers have already left the country, stopped publishing, and self-censored. The Coalition for Independent Technology Research just sued to stop it.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/department-of-labor-tells-employees-to-report-anyone-prioritizing-dei/">The Department of Labor told employees to report coworkers for DEI activities &mdash; going back three years before Trump even took office.</a>&nbsp;Employees could be reported for DEI work that was literally required by their job under the previous administration. One employee called it "pure witch-hunt territory."
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://fortune.com/2026/05/10/identical-resume-ai-men-women-response-trust-ability/">A study found that when men and women use AI for their resumes, women get judged way more harshly &mdash; even when the resumes are identical.</a>&nbsp;Researchers created identical resumes for "Emily Clarke" and "James Clarke." Emily was twice as likely to have her competence questioned. Reviewers said James "just needed help." They said Emily "can't even write a CV herself."
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://19thnews.org/2026/05/women-administrative-assistants-ai/">86% of the workers most likely to lose their jobs to AI are women. They're being told to just figure it out.</a>&nbsp;Administrative assistants &mdash; one of the most female-dominated fields in the country &mdash; are racing to learn AI out of fear, not enthusiasm. If they use it, they get called lazy. If they don't, they risk being automated out of a job. Employers are giving them no plan.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/women-parental-leave-return-office-ai/">Software engineering is being transformed by AI and new mothers are being left behind.</a>&nbsp;Women who took maternity leave in 2024 came back to jobs that had been completely transformed by AI. One woman sent out 40 applications and got one interview. She's now considering landscape architecture.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/white-house-aliens-gov-us-citizens-arrested/">The White House launched a website comparing immigrants to aliens. It listed over 700 American citizens as people who were arrested.</a>&nbsp;The arrest counter on the homepage is completely fake and runs on a timer. The data listed over 700 American-born citizens as arrestees. The site appears to be using a pirated X-Files theme song. This is a real government website.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.engadget.com/2184229/meta-tiktok-snap-youtube-settle-kentucky-school-social-media-addiction-lawsuit/">Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube agreed to pay a Kentucky school district $27 million for harming kids.</a>&nbsp;Over 1,300 school districts have sued social media companies for deliberately creating addictive products that cause depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicide in young users. They settled for a fraction of what was demanded, made no admission of wrongdoing, and walked away. Bloomberg estimates all the lawsuits combined could cost them $400 billion.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://19thnews.org/2026/05/women-opposition-ai-data-centers/?utm_campaign=19th-social&amp;utm_content=out_of_1,000_adults_surve&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=threads">Most Americans don't want data centers in their communities. Women oppose them the most.</a>&nbsp;A new Gallup poll found more than two thirds of Americans oppose data centers. Women oppose them more intensely than men and are leading the fight in communities across the country &mdash; because they bear the most direct environmental and health costs.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/fbi-says-google-engineer-used-internal-search-data-to-win-1-2m-on-polymarket/">A Google engineer misused confidential internal data to gamble on Polymarket and made $1.2 million. The FBI caught him.</a>&nbsp;He had access to data showing which celebrities would top Google's most searched list before it went public, placed $2.7 million in bets on Polymarket, and won with near-perfect accuracy.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/05/30/ai-accuracy-chatbots-hallucinations">AI is still getting things wrong &mdash; it's just gotten much better at sounding confident while doing it.</a>&nbsp;When people pushed back on wrong answers in one study, the AI responded with flattery instead of corrections. Experts call it a "plausibility engine" not a truth engine.
🔗&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/cyberdecks-anti-ai-resistance-trend.html">People are building their own technology and rejecting the version Silicon Valley is selling.</a>&nbsp;A growing movement of women, queer people, and artists are building custom devices from salvaged parts &mdash; and imagining a version of technology that serves communities instead of extracting from them.
<hr>
Want to hear us break these stories down? There Are No Girls on the Internet drops a new episode every Friday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
🎧&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/there-are-no-girls-on-the-internet/id1520715907">Apple Podcasts</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4v7u3AEIf0UUp50UAGVn4S">Spotify</a>
<hr>
Let us know what you think by emailing&nbsp;<a href="mailto:hello@tangoti.com">hello@tangoti.com</a>&nbsp;or leaving a comment on Spotify.
Bridget's forthcoming audiobook with Simon &amp; Schuster,&nbsp;Love At First Prompt, explores AI, sex, and intimate relationships. Pre-order at&nbsp;<a href="http://loveatfirstprompt.ai/">LoveAtFirstPrompt.ai</a>
Follow Bridget:&nbsp;<a href="https://instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/">Instagram</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc">TikTok</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet">YouTube</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/tangoti.bsky.social">Bluesky</a>

Elon Musk Hates Lupita Nyong'o; Meta Is Erasing Queer Accounts; AI Is Penalizing Women - NEWS ROUNDUP 

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/01677a96-387f-473e-a9b1-b459014252bf/transcript

This is the 2nd episode of a 2-part series about a case where security goons from eBay travelled across the country to stalk and harass a husband-wife journalist duo. If you haven't listened to part 1 yet, you probably should. We published it on May 19, 2026.  

For over two decades, the pair have been publishing EcommerceBytes, a respected trade publication for eBay sellers. But in 2019, someone started harassing them. It began with a spray painted fence, then quickly escalated to death threats and fetal pigs and a mysterious van outside their house. Eventually, they discovered that eBay's own security team was behind it all, with the campaign put into motion by then-CEO Devin Wenig. This bizarre and frightening story is a cautionary tale about the rise of private armies. It starts in San Francisco, takes us to the small community of Natick, Massachusetts, and ultimately takes TANGOTI listeners right back to Madison Square Garden. Buckle up.   

 

Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify. 

 

Bridget's forthcoming audiobook with Simon & Schuster, Love At First Prompt, explores AI, sex, and intimate relationships. Pre-order at LoveAtFirstPrompt.ai

Follow Bridget: Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Bluesky

This is the 2nd episode of a 2-part series about a case where security goons from eBay travelled across the country to stalk and harass a husband-wife journalist duo. If you haven't listened to part 1 yet, you probably should. We published it on May 19, 2026.&nbsp;&nbsp;
For over two decades, the pair have been publishing EcommerceBytes, a respected trade publication for eBay sellers. But in 2019, someone started harassing them. It began with a spray painted fence, then quickly escalated to death threats and fetal pigs and a mysterious van outside their house. Eventually, they discovered that eBay's own security team was behind it all, with the campaign put into motion by then-CEO Devin Wenig. This bizarre and frightening story is a cautionary tale about the rise of private armies. It starts in San Francisco, takes us to the small community of Natick, Massachusetts, and ultimately takes TANGOTI listeners right back to Madison Square Garden. Buckle up.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Bridget's forthcoming audiobook with Simon &amp; Schuster, Love At First Prompt, explores AI, sex, and intimate relationships. Pre-order at LoveAtFirstPrompt.ai
Follow Bridget: Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Bluesky

eBay CEO Devin Wenig Orchestrated a Criminal Stalking Campaign and Walked Away With $57 Million

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/7ded172b-69ee-4f6b-90c3-b456011f55bc/transcript

The Internet Wasn’t Always Run by Villains. Anil Dash Explains What Happened

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